Aces
by Eqgz
Summary: The direct sequel to Wild Card. Read that story first if you haven't done so. More info in my Bio.
1. A Bad Start

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

**Disclaimer:**

**Most of the characters herein are trademarked by Bandai and/or Toei. This work is derivative of season 3 of the Digimon television series (Digimon Tamers) and is in no way meant to imply ownership or infringe on any trademark or copyright.**

**Author's Notes:**

**This is the direct sequel to **_**Wild Card**_**. Read that story first if you haven't already.**

**A link to a picture of Coyomon can be found on my bio page.**

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

**ACES**

**by Eqgz**

--o--o--o--

Chapter 1

A Bad Start

--o--o--o--

The wind whipped around the great mesas of the Iron Desert, howling and moaning through all the weird shapes of sculpted sandstone that dominated the landscape of the lowest level of the Digital Dimension. The sky itself was red with suspended dust.

A renamon crouched on the cliff edge of one of those mesas, her violet eyes slitted down to protect them from the stinging sand, her tail streaming out behind her, fur riffling in waves. She couldn't hear much above the noise of the wind and all scents were fragmentary and confused but she knew _they_ were out there somewhere-- those vile human tamers and their digimon slaves.

She bared her fangs slightly in a savage smile as she ran over her plans in her mind. Soon she would accomplish her mission. The Digimon Sovereign would reward her with power and a high position in the new digimon empire on Earth. And, more importantly, she would have her revenge on the bastard who had spurned her. He was tainted beyond redemption-- he'd proved that himself-- and that taint would be his undoing. The emotion of love and the weakness it created in him was the opening she needed.

She turned her head and looked down at the weapon she would use to destroy him. It was something so simple, so innocent looking. She ran a hand over its smooth surface, knowing it would be the death of him.

Kunomon turned away from the cliff edge and retreated into the small cave she used as a den, carrying with her the small yellow and red-speckled egg.

--o--o--o--

"Are we going to make friends with every damn digimon we stumble across?" Coyomon complained. "Do I look like a Care-Bear or something? I want a good _fight_ once in a while!"

As usual, everybody was ignoring him. Almost everybody. "Put a sock in it, flea-bag." Rika snapped, "We just got here. You're going to get plenty of fighting before this is all over and Meramon might be able to give us some information."

"He's just upset because he lost all of his supplies," Renamon told her tamer. "He wants to take it out on someone."

"Supplies? You mean all those boxes of doughnuts?" Rika asked Coyomon with distaste. "How many of those disgusting, sticky things could you eat, anyway?"

"Well, I'm never going to find out _now_, am I?" Coyomon huffed. "And it wasn't just the doughnuts-- everything _else_ I put in my vest portal is gone, too!" He flapped the side of his vest revealing that the inside was an unbroken piece of buckskin. The small dimensional portal he had always used as a handy cache had vanished when he and the rest of the team had entered the Digital Dimension. Coyomon snorted in disgust. "I'm gonna go take a look around." He bounded up the side of the nearest overhanging antenna-like rock formation and disappeared over the crest. Rika glared after him.

"Don't worry," Renamon told her, "these moods of his never last long. He'll calm down soon."

"He'd better," Rika said, "or I'm going to kick his furry behind!" She turned and stomped off to join the rest of the group who were clustered around the fiery Meramon.

Renamon sighed and looked up at the mesa's edge where Coyomon had disappeared. She was a bit frustrated and impatient herself-- but, typically for her, she wasn't letting her feelings affect her outward calm. She considered following her mate and attempting to comfort him but thought better of it. She knew he'd come back after he'd cooled down a bit and that the best thing she could do was leave him alone for now. She carefully scanned the surrounding desert for any hint of danger and then followed her tamer.

Meramon didn't have any useful information for the team about the whereabouts of Calumon or the monkey deva Makuramon so the kids decided to settle down where they were for the night and everyone picked a soft-looking patch of sand to stretch out on. Renamon folded herself into a lotus position and bowed her head-- resting but not sleeping.

Coyomon returned a little while later and sat down next to Renamon, sighing.

"Anything?" she asked him.

"No," he sighed again, "there're digimon out there-- but a long ways off. I don't even know if there _are_ special places where they keep their eggs or if that's just a myth. Before you came to Earth, did you ever--"

Renamon shook her head. "I left here when I was young." She smiled, thinking back to the day she had met her tamer. "Young, inexperienced, and so arrogant-- to answer Rika's call for the 'strongest' digimon."

"Is it still considered arrogance if you've got good reasons to think you _are_ the best there is?" Coyomon murmured into her ear as he slipped an arm around her shoulders.

Renamon smiled and leaned against his chest. "You're biased, lover."

"I'm _experienced_, is what I am," he said, kissing her lightly on the muzzle. "I know for _sure_ how good you are." He snuggled closer to his mate and then stiffened as a sudden thought struck him. "Hey, if you've made the jump to Earth from here once before--"

Renamon knew where he was going and cut him off. "No, there was no portal. I just felt the pull from Rika and simply didn't resist. The transition was almost instantaneous-- and certainly easier than our trip back here."

"Crap," Coyomon swore. "This expedition isn't exactly getting off to a great start."

Renamon lifted her head and kissed him, lovingly and thoroughly.

Coyomon sighed in contentment as they broke off the kiss to gaze into each other's eyes. "But it seems to be improving," he said, grinning at her.

--o--o--o--

Impmon fell.

He smashed through several tenuous layers of semi-solid data as he dropped lower and lower into the Digital Dimension, weary and battered but with enough strength left to curse as he tumbled through the air.

He groaned as he watched another layer rushing up toward him. This one looked more solid than the others-- more _painful_.

He grimaced and closed his eyes just before he hit. It didn't help.

--o--o--o--

Time runs strangely in the Digital Dimension but it _felt_ like two or three in the morning when the Jagamon herd stampeded through the team's camp.

The earth began to shudder and loose rocks and pebbles clattered down the face of the mesa. Everyone but Kazu and Kenta woke nearly instantly. Leomon grabbed both of the girls in his arms and leaped up onto a shelf of rock a few meters up the side of the cliff while Renamon yanked the two half-sleeping boys to safety. Takato heaved Guilmon up from below with Henry and Terriermon pulling from above. Saving his partner took so long that Takato was nearly caught by the lead Jagamon. Coyomon leaned over the edge of the shelf and grabbed him by the belt, half-lifting, half-throwing him onto the ledge.

Flashes of red light flared in the night as a laughing Meramon threw chunks of glowing magma into the herd. He hadn't bothered climbing to safety, but had chosen to fight instead. The team watched in dismay as scores of the galloping Jagamon broke from the herd and slammed into Meramon. He fell beneath their flashing hooves and screamed only once before the light of his fire flicked and went out.

--o--o--o--

In the morning Takato insisted that they raise a cairn to mark the place of Meramon's death. He took a piece of notepaper and made a drawing of the fiery digimon to add to the rock pile.

"Why is he taking it so hard?" Coyomon wondered in a whisper to Renamon. "He's seen dozens of digimon die-- heck, he's been _responsible_ for a lot of them!"

"I suppose, in Takato's mind, those ones were all 'bad guys' and he was fighting to protect his friends and his city. This was just--" Renamon searched for the right word, "--_casual_-- an ordinary part of daily life in the Digital Dimension. I think he didn't realize how brutal existence here could be."

Coyomon shrugged. "He's a tough kid and a good tamer-- he'll get used to it pretty quick."

"Yes," Renamon sighed, "but it's a shame that he has to."

Coyomon gave her an odd look and then turned away from the group. "I'm going to scout around a bit while we're waiting," he said and trotted off.

--o--o--o--

Kunomon hissed in her sleep and her right hand clutched spasmodically, her long black claws tearing grooves in the sandstone floor of her cave. She awoke with a sudden jerk and was on her feet in a fighting stance almost instantly, growling and searching for a non-existent enemy. After a moment her breathing slowed and she relaxed, blinking in the light from a clear morning sky.

She checked the egg where it lay resting on a soft heap of sand and then walked out of the cave to the cliff's edge, carefully crouching low to avoid silhouetting herself against the skyline. She saw a cloud of dust in the distance, too long and thick to be caused by a single large digimon. Probably Jagamon or another of the herd-types-- uninteresting to her in any case. She sniffed the air and was rewarded with the faint scent of human beings. Judging from the strength of the scent and the lightness of the breeze, the tamers weren't all that far away. With the way the air swirled around the rock spires of the desert, she couldn't be sure of the exact direction but that hardly mattered. She could find them within an hour or two at the most.

Suddenly Kunomon gasped and clutched at her left wrist. "No!" she snarled, "not now!" But the ring of black metal hidden beneath her arm guard continued to pulse with a burning cold. Her master was calling-- and the penalty for disobedience was too terrible, too final. She raged silently as she prepared to make the long trek. She packed more sand around her precious weapon and then heaved debris across the narrow entrance of her cave, hiding it from any but the most careful search.

Coyomon had gained another few, undeserved days of life, thanks to her interfering, impatient master. "Enjoy it while you can, you _bastard_." Kunomon spat into the wind.

--o--o--o--


	2. The Winds of Fate

--o--o--o--

Chapter 2

The Winds of Fate

--o--o--o--

Coyomon stood on the edge of the mesa, watching the line of tamers and digimon straggle along below him in the direction the Jagamon had indicated they'd seen Makuramon. It was a slim lead. There was no telling how long ago they'd seen him-- Jagamon were just about as stupid as they were numerous.

He had broken away from the group again to 'scout' despite Rika's half-hearted protest that they should all stay together. The truth was he needed some time away from the incessant chatter of the Noise Boys (his name for Kazu and Kenta) to think. He was troubled and the red desert felt peaceful and familiar to him somehow. It was easier to think alone, up high with the wind in his fur.

He was worried about Takato.

That morning, shortly after the team had left Meramon's cairn, Coyomon had overheard Guilmon and Takato talking. It was obvious that the boy was still disturbed by the sudden and apparently meaningless death of Meramon. He'd asked for assurances from his little red partner that nothing bad would happen to him. Even that hadn't been enough-- Takato made Guilmon _promise_ him that nothing bad would happen.

Coyomon shuddered, remembering the promise he'd made to his first tamer-- that they'd always be together. Events had made a liar out of him in the most brutal way possible. Coyomon savagely kicked loose rocks off the cliff and watched them clatter and bounce to the sand below. Takato and Guilmon were his friends and he would do everything he could to make sure no harm came to them-- but he knew how useless such intentions were if fate decided otherwise-- and the Digital Dimension was a savage and merciless place. He'd thought about trying to get Takato alone for a private talk but decided against it. The boy would either stand up or fold up when the inevitable crisis came-- no amount of jabber was going to prepare him for it.

A data stream was scoring its way across the desert floor, visible bytes of data surging upward through its ruby colored column. Coyomon stood and admired it for a while. The data streams were really quite beautiful and this was the closest one had approached.

In fact, it was getting _really_ close.

Coyomon gave a startled yip and leaped down the face of the mesa, racing for the other team members who were only just realizing their danger. The data stream roared past him, throwing out a stinging cloud of sand and small shards of rock. Running figures emerged from the dust storm around the column-- Leomon and Jeri, Renamon and Rika, Terriermon and Henry, Guilmon and Takato-- and that was all. Coyomon couldn't see Kazu or Kenta.

Suddenly, Renamon scooped up Rika and raced back into the path of the data stream. Coyomon put on a desperate burst of speed, catching up with the stream and passing it just in time to see Renamon, his tamer, and the two foolish boys engulfed in the column and ripped away from the desert's surface. Coyomon hesitated, then screamed out a curse and leapt into the roaring stream.

The red column rushed on, leaving a stunned, group behind it.

"Coyomon told me never to use words like that," Guilmon said quietly.

"I think the situation warranted it," Terriermon replied.

"Where did they _go_?" Jeri asked plaintively.

"There's no way of telling," Leomon told his tamer, "They could be anywhere in the Digital Dimension. It would be useless to search for them. We must continue on our quest and hope that they will find their way back to us."

They all discussed the matter for a while longer but nobody could come up with a better plan.

--o--o--o--

Kazu groaned as Coyomon grabbed his arm and hauled him out of the shallow crater he'd made in the desert floor when he'd landed. "You're fine," the smirking coyote digimon told him. "Isn't it fun being digital? Back home a drop from just a few stories up woulda killed you. And we must have fallen--" he looked up at the towering cliff and the tiny globe of the Earth that hung above it, "--jeeze, must be a kilometer at least!"

"Look how far away it is!" Kenta said. "We're never gonna be able to climb back up there!"

"Oh, I don't know," Coyomon said turning to Renamon and miming carrying something under his arm. "You up for a game of Don't-Drop-the-Baby?" Renamon made a small noise that might have been a cough or might have been a stifled laugh.

Kazu frowned in confusion. "Who're you calling a baby?"

"As long as we're down here we might as well have a look around," Rika said, brushing sand off her shoulder. "Renamon," she pointed to the left, out of the narrow cleft of rock. "Coyomon," she pointed to the right. The two digimon leapt away. "Kazu. Kenta--" Rika sighed, "--try to keep up." She turned and began walking down the sandy slope into the valley.

A half hour later they were back together again, Renamon speaking loudly to be heard over the rising wind. "There is a small village nearby," she said, pointing downwind.

Rika nodded. "Coyomon?"

"Nothing over my way," he told her, "just more desert and dead trees."

"Then we should--" Rika began and then had to jump aside as an old tire rolled by, propelled by the strengthening wind.

Coyomon watched it with a surprised look on his face. "They've got _cars_ here?"

The next gust was even stronger and they all had to brace themselves to avoid being blown over. A microwave oven bounced end-over-end across the sand and caromed off a boulder, nearly hitting Kenta.

The group ran for cover behind the largest piece of nearby sandstone and all watched in amazement as more household goods and random trash flew by in the howling wind.

"Where the hell is all this furniture coming from?" yelled Coyomon. Nobody had time to answer him before a grand piano slammed into the far side of their sheltering rock and exploded with an ungodly noise. The impact broke off a huge chunk of the rock, which toppled over and would have landed on them if Renamon hadn't lunged at it, shoving it aside.

"We've got to find a safer place than this rock!" Renamon yelled, barely audible over the roar of the wind. "Let's head to the village!" She held Rika in front of her, stepped into the blast of air, and was instantly propelled down wind. Coyomon grabbed up the boys by their collars and followed.

They just barely managed to reach one of the squat, mushroom-shaped adobe houses in the village. They burst through the swinging circular door, groaning and coughing up sand. Renamon put her shoulder to the door and swung it shut.

"Good thing that door wasn't locked, huh?" Coyomon said as he untangled the cord of an electric razor from his left leg.

"And who would be so rude as to barge into our home uninvited?" came a gravelly voice.

The team turned to see two ancient dwarfish figures standing in the archway to the next room. The apparently female one of the pair turned to the one who had just spoken and asked, "We _didn't_ invite them, did we?" The male furrowed his brows and shrugged.

Rika thumbed on her digivice and read, "Jijimon and Babamon, both Megas and-- hey-- what do you know-- they're married!"

"That's right, happily married for forty years--" Jijimon said, "--and not so happily for ten after that."

"What?" Babmon screamed, "Why, you old coot! I ought to--" She swung her broom and Jijimon and he ducked, taking a swipe at her with his lion paw-tipped staff in return. And with that, the two bizarre characters began cursing and swinging away at each other in a rather ineffectual manner.

Rika frowned at them. "Why are they fighting?"

"And," added Coyomon, "if they're Megas-- why are they doing it so _badly_?"

Rika glanced at both her digimon. "You guys aren't going to be like that when you're old, are you?"

"Holy, Tesla," yipped Coyomon, "I sure hope not!"

"Well," Renamon said, "first of all, digimon don't age, and secondly," she continued, looking pointedly at Coyomon, "if you ever--" She was interrupted by the crash of some piece of furniture toppling over.

The group followed the squabbling digimon pair down a flight of stairs to a cavernous room below the main house.

"Why are you fighting?" Rika yelled at them.

The pair broke off their dueling and looked up at her. "Huh? Whazzat?"

"I said, 'why are you fighting?' Are you having a lover's spat or something?" Rika glanced back at her partners. Coyomon rolled his eyes.

"Oh," Jijimon shrugged, "it passes the time."

"Sure," Babamon added. "What else have we got to do when the wind's blowing? Hey-- we could fight _you_! _That'd_ be different."

Rika's partners instantly leaped in front of her to confront the gnomish pair. Jijimon looked back and forth between the two tense, snarling digimon and said, "Or-- we could go make some food." And the two bizarre Megas turned and left their guests standing alone and bewildered.

"Okay, " Coyomon said to Renamon, "first there's a rain of furniture and now there's _these_ two nutjobs-- did we fall into the Digital World's version of an insane asylum or something?"

"There are _much_ stranger things here, I promise you." Renamon told him calmly.

"Really?" Coyomon asked. Renamon nodded and Coyomon's face broke out in a wide grin. "_Cool!_"

--o--o--o--

The feast was amazing.

Jijimon and Babamon spread dozens of delicious plates of food across the heavy wooden table and everyone ate their fill with enjoyment. Throughout the meal the two little Megas continued to verbally snipe at each other in a genial way, much to the amusement of the rest.

After the meal Kazu and Kenta took up Jijimon's offer of a hot bath. The rest of the group fled to a distant room to avoid the off-key caterwauling that the two boys considered necessary to accompany their splashing and horseplay.

"Just when I thought the Noise Boys couldn't get any more irritating--" Coyomon growled, his ears pinned back protectively against his head.

"I thought my eardrums were going to bleed," Renamon snapped, her polite demeanor forgotten under the assault of the appalling racket.

"'Noise Boys'?" Rika chuckled, "that's perfect!"

Babamon invited them all to spend the night and Rika accepted for the group with thanks.

After a few minutes of quiet and companionable conversation, Renamon tapped Coyomon on the leg with the tip of her tail and gave him a significant look, twitching her muzzle toward Rika where she stood by the fireplace with a cup of tea. Coyomon gave her a barely perceptible nod and turned to Rika.

"Hey Rika," I've been thinking," he began.

"Uh-oh," Rika said.

"No, really," Coyomon continued, "I think that as long as we're separated from the rest of the team we might as well search for Calumon on our own. After all--" and he continued to lay out an unnecessarily convoluted plan for his tamer.

With Rika occupied, Renamon slowly approached Babamon's chair and knelt beside it. "Babamon, may I ask you something?" she spoke quietly.

"Of course! What is it?" the little Mega said, not looking up from her knitting.

"Have you and Jijimon ever-- um-- had a child? An egg, I mean."

"Heavens, no!" Babamon cackled. "This village is very peaceful. We hardly ever need any replacements. No eggs have shown up here for years!"

"Oh." Renamon said, taken a bit aback. "S_hown up?_"

"Yeah, you know-- dropped from the sky to replace a dead digimon."

Renamon blinked. "But don't you-- can't you _make_ them-- together with your mate?"

Babamon stopped knitting and leaned over to peer at the confused fox. "You've got some strange ideas there, missy. How could we do that?"

"I--" Renamon's composure nearly left her, "I heard that it could happen that way, sometimes."

Babamon went back to her knitting. "_I_ never heard such a thing!"

Renamon was happy to return to Rika's side.

"--and just where do you think we are going to get a giant catapult?" her tamer was asking Coyomon.

--o--o--o--


	3. Changes

--o--o--o--

Chapter 3

Changes

--o--o--o--

Chatsuramon smiled down at Impmon-- sort of. It was hard for a creature whose teeth were mostly located _outside_ of his mouth to do anything but snarl but he did his best. Impmon knelt before him, exhausted by the nightmare visions that had been imposed on him by the foo-dog deva.

"Okay," Impmon said at last, wearily levering himself up to his feet, "I'll do it. If you promise to make me digivolve-- make me powerful-- I'll destroy them for you."

"Good," rumbled Chatsuramon. He raised a tiny amount of energy, triggering a process already set up and waiting for the unsuspecting Impmon. A crevasse instantly opened in the ground beneath the little purple digimon and he fell from sight. He was too surprised to yell.

"Now-- where is my little sneak-thief?" Chatsuramon growled.

Kunomon had lingered out of phase to watch Impmon sink from sight in the magma that filled the bottom of the crack. She composed herself, making sure her face was carefully devoid of the contempt she felt for the deva to whom the Sovereign had given her, and then she phased into visibility and knelt before her lord.

"The transformation will not take long," Chatsuramon told her. "When he emerges, locate him and follow him. He will have great power and I want to make sure he will do as I wish."

"You are right not to trust him," Kunomon said with her head still bowed. "Give the power to me and _I_ will do it!"

"I trust _you_ even less, little fox."

"That fool hesitated to accept your offer. I would not have. I want them all dead as much as you and the Sovereign."

Chatsuramon ceased all efforts to smile. "You want to kill one of them in particular-- there's the difference-- your emotions cloud your judgment. No-- Impmon's lust for power is pure and clear-- he will be the perfect tool.

Kunomon dared to look up at her lord. "And if your perfect tool _fails_ you?"

The dog deva's eyes flared with rage and he struck out with one huge paw, bowling over his servant and pinning her to the ground. "You forget your place little one," he snarled. "I have other spies-- I could do without _you_." He shifted his weight over the gasping renamon and twisted his paw, crushing her into the dirt. "Now-- cease to exist--" he made another ghastly attempt at a smile, "--or beg my forgiveness."

Kunomon struggled for the breath to do so.

--o--o--o--

"I can't believe that actually worked," Rika said as she untangled herself from the improvised glider that the group had used to ride the thermals out of the deep canyon.

"Hey," Coyomon said, sniffing the air, "I think we're not far from where we first landed."

"Yes," Renamon agreed, "there in the distance-- those three mesas look familiar."

The group walked for an hour before spotting Takato's team flag, still miraculously upright, where Kazu and Kenta had planted it. After a bit of discussion, it was decided that the other half of the team might well return to the spot and it would be a smart thing to do to wait for them. They all thought it sounded like a good idea at first but hadn't factored in how Kazu and Kenta behaved when they were bored.

After a few hours, Coyomon suddenly stood up, scowling. "I think I ought to go out and scout the surrounding--"

"Good idea, flea-bag," Rika said through gritted teeth. "I think Renamon and I should come too."

"Why don't we all go?" Asked Kazu, getting to his feet.

"NO!" Rika and her partners all shouted at once.

"You two stay here in case Takato and the rest come back." Rika told them sternly. She spun on her heel and stalked away before Kazu could answer, her partners pacing her on either side.

Rika and her two digimon only got a short respite. Within half an hour they heard the two boys approaching even over the moaning of the ever-present wind. After a short attempt at getting the thoughtless boys to realize that _someone_ had to wait by the flag, Rika spotted a data stream meandering across the desert in the distance. She pointed it out to the boys and commented that they needed to avoid it. Kazu immediately dismissed her concerns-- and seconds afterward, the red beam ripped them off the surface of the desert.

--o--o--o--

Coyomon spat out a mouthful of sand. "Oh yeah," he grumbled, "face-planting in the dirt-- that just _never_ gets old." He reached over to help Rika get to her feet and brushed sand off her back. Renamon shook herself and combed her claws through her tail fur. The Noise Boys groaned and slowly sat up.

"Well," commented Rika, looking around at the surreal surroundings, "this is-- _different_."

The terrain was still a desert but now, instead of red sandstone outcroppings, gigantic gears and cogwheels dominated the landscape, some slowly rotating on huge vertical columns, some scattered across the surface, embedded in the ground and unmoving, some just hanging in the air. Kazu and Kenta began to wildly speculate on the nature of the land they now found themselves in.

"Shut up!" Rika exploded, "shut up, _shut up_, _SHUT UP_!"

There was a brief but intense shouting match as everyone released a bit of their pent-up frustrations. Coyomon phased out briefly until Rika called him back. "Look," she said to them all in a dangerously quiet voice, "we are going to search until we find Calumon or the rest of the team-- and the sooner we start, the sooner we can all get out of this place-- so let's get going."

A short while afterward, they came across a pedestal clock that was emitting an irregular grinding noise and a sharp, piercing ticking. Its second hand twitched back and forth just short of the full upright position at twelve.

"Should we unstick it?" Kenta asked.

"Might as well," Rika said, reaching out a finger.

"No! Stop!" a voice yelled from behind the group. But it was too late. Rika's finger tapped the second hand and it popped over to the 12 o'clock position. A gong sounded and the clock began to run normally.

The two distraught digimon who had suddenly appeared fit in perfectly with their environment: One seemed to be entirely composed of gear wheels and the other looked to be humanoid creature riding a broken alarm clock that had grown arms and legs.

Rika had her digivice out and was reading the stats to her partners.

"This is not going to be good!" Clockmon moaned, holding his head in his hands.

"Get ready--" Hagurumon said, "--here it comes!"

Most of the group was looking around nervously and Coyomon was studying the two clockwork digimon intently, trying to decide where their vulnerable spots were, when all of the gigantic gears ground to a halt and, seconds later, an immense dragon-type digimon erupted from beneath the sand.

"Megadramon," Rika read from her stat screen, " virus-- Ultimate-- specials are Parry Force and Dark Side Attack. He looks tough."

Rather than sizing up the other digimon, Megadramon focused its attention on Rika. Renamon and Coyomon stepped forward in front of Rika, growling.

The clockwork digimon suddenly realized who Rika was. "A _tamer_?" Clockmon said in astonishment. "You've been to the real world!"

"It's said that if a digimon downloads the data of another digimon who's been to the real world, they'll gain the power to go there," said Hagurumon with awe in his voice.

"That's ridiculous," Renamon scoffed, not taking her eyes off the looming Megadramon.

"Maybe," Coyomon said, "but it looks like _this_ big truckload of ugly believes it."

"Then show it how wrong it is," Rika sneered to her partners. "_Sic 'im_!"

"As you wish!" they snarled joyfully together, and blurred into action.

"Criss-Cross," Renamon yelled to Coyomon as the two leaped away from Rika-- not directly at their enormous foe, but outward at opposite angles until they were separated by nearly ninety degrees and then they turned sharply, arrowing forward. Megadramon was uncertain which of them to concentrate on-- confusion that the tactic was designed to create-- but finally decided to attack Renamon. She had closed the distance so quickly that it couldn't use its enormous claws and had to swing its massive, armor plated head around to swat her from the air.

Megadramon's move gave Coyomon the opening he needed. He caught hold of the edge of the right nostril opening in the dragon's head armor and swung his feet up and into the relatively small slit for the eye, triggering his Earth Splitter attack energy just as his paws slammed into the giant yellow orb. There was a thunderous noise of energy transfer followed immediately by a tremendous roar of agony from Megadramon. The dragon wrenched its head around, flinging Coyomon off to cartwheel over his shoulder.

Rika hadn't been idle all that while. Renamon hadn't even hit the ground before she was enveloped in a whirling energy vortex and emerged seconds later in her Champion form, Kyuubimon. She launched a Fox Tail Inferno that was deflected by Megadramon's well-named Parry Force. And all that while, Rika's hands were flashing between her two digivices.

Coyomon, now transformed into Kaliskamon, leaped up from Megadramon's blind side and did a back flip right against the underside of the monster's long, snake-like body, using his Razor Tail attack to rip long gashes through its belly. The dragon roared again and tried to get out from between its tormentors. Kyuubimon launched her Dragon Wheel attack, whirling through the sky after the fleeing Ultimate. Megadramon launched a defensive Dark Side Attack, a swarm of small missiles, which crackled into Kyuubimon, knocking her from the sky.

As Megadramon wheeled ponderously around, Kaliskamon landed in a spray of sand next to Kyuubimon. He stretched out a forepaw and made red sparks leap between his claws. "Need a recharge, lover?" he asked her.

"No thanks, handsome," she grinned at Kaliskamon as she got to her feet, "I'm okay-- just got caught by surprise."

"It's slowing down a bit," Kaliskamon said, watching the huge dragon finish its turn and start a run back toward them. "If we can pump a couple more specials into some soft spots, that ought to do it. How about an Over-and-Under?"

"Perfect," Kyuubimon growled as she crouched to leap. "Let's take him apart!"

But they never got the chance to finish their fight. A second flying dragon type swooped down and attacked Megadramon. It was an Ultimate level also but much smaller.

Rika was looking a bit frazzled as she read the interloper's stats from her digivice, an unused Hyper Speed card still tucked between two of her fingers. "Cyberdramon, Ultimate, Desolation Claw."

The newcomer slammed into the larger Ultimate, forcing it to the ground and, as it tried to rise, hit it with Desolation Claw, a burst of energy that burned charred holes in nearly every surface of its body. Megadramon moaned and collapsed.

"Cyberdramon, back off!" called a voice. "That's not the opponent we're looking for!" It was a young boy-- a human.

"Another tamer?" Kyuubimon wondered aloud.

"If so," Kaliskamon said, "he's not a very good one-- his partner isn't listening to him." It was true. Cyberdramon advanced and threw another Desolation Claw attack into the weakly struggling Megadramon.

"So--" the boy frowned, "it's to be the hard way, is it?" He pulled a digivice from his pocket and yelled, "Cyberdramon, _obey_!" A lash of blue energy grew out of the digivice and as the boy swung it like a whip handle, the energy lash struck out at his digimon, curling around his lower arm and tightening painfully.

"Holy Tesla," Kaliskamon whispered, "I didn't know they could do that."

"Stop it!" the boy yelled again. "You _will_ obey me, Cyberdramon!" The digimon struggled but finally gave in and slunk over to his tamer.

The boy was making introductions as Rika's two digimon approached the group. Rika was seriously upset for some reason and both her partners felt it. Maybe the boy's digimon felt that Kaliskamon had gotten too close to the him, or maybe it was just the tension in the air, but for whatever reason, Cyberdramon suddenly growled and swung a clawed hand at Kaliskamon. It wasn't a serious attack-- but it certainly was the _threat_ of one.

"Oh no," Kyuubimon groaned quietly. She knew her mate well.

Kaliskamon snarled as he dodged back, his shifting, colored fur patterns going blood red and spiky. He fully bared his fangs and they began to glow and hiss with the energy of his Fire Bite attack. Cyberdramon's growl grew louder and he crouched to spring.

"NO!" the boy cried as he swung his digivice whip around his partner's neck. Cyberdramon clawed at the tightening noose with one hand while trying to reach Kaliskamon with the other. "Call off your digimon," the boy shouted to Rika, "or I might not be able to hold him back!"

Rika's scowl fell away to be replaced with an expression of icy calm. "Kaliskamon," she said very, very quietly, "heel."

Even though Cyberdramon's claws were slicing through the air only a hairbreadth from him, Kaliskamon instantly turned and trotted over to her, wheeling in place and sitting next to Rika in a precise pose that mirrored the one Kyuubimon had taken up on the other side of their tamer. Rika crossed her arms over her chest and smiled. A last little wisp of steam drifted away on the wind from Kaliskamon's jaws.

The boy struggled for a few seconds more before Cyberdramon quieted and could be released from the energy whip.

"Looks like you're having a bit of trouble controlling your digimon, Ryo" Rika observed with just the tiniest bit of a sneer in her voice.

"Sorry," he said, grinning and seemingly unperturbed by the incident, "Cyberdramon just loves to fight."

"Mine do too," Rika said, "But they--"

"Hey!" shouted Kazu suddenly, "You're Ryo Akiyama, the digimon champion!" The hero-worshiping chatter of the Noise Boys revealed Ryo to be Rika's one-time arch nemesis back when being a tamer meant nothing more than mastering a card game. Ryo had been the only player to ever beat Rika in a Digimon Grand Prix-- something the boys felt it necessary to mention at least half a dozen times. Rika lost her calm expression. Ryo at least had the good grace to be embarrassed by their fawning.

"There's still one thing that needs taking care of," Ryo said, pulling a out a pocket knife as he walked to the pedestal clock. He stuck the knife into the face of the clock, blocking the second hand from turning. There was a rumbling and all the giant gears and cogs began turning once more. "Great," he said as Megadramon's twitching body was pulled beneath the sands, "everything's set."

"Uhm--" Kaliskamon asked of nobody in particular, "why couldn't we have just killed it and downloaded its data?"

Everyone ignored him.

"Do you think someday I'll be able to go to the real world?" Hagurumon asked of Ryo.

"Sure," Ryo told him cheerfully, "just keep dreaming and you can make anything happen."

Rika snorted. Kaliskamon whispered to her, "Jeeze-- is this guy for real?"

--o--o--o--

Kunomon nearly screamed in frustration. "You're telling me a master smith like you can't get this damned thing off of me?" She shook her wrist at the cowering digimon.

"It would take far more energy than I can command," he told her, "and that much energy could kill you even if it _did_ break the shackle."

"It will kill me if I _don't_ get it off," she snarled, "because I'm not going to kowtow to that pompous moron _ever again_!"

The smith had no idea what she was talking about but correctly assumed that silence was the safest course to take.

Kunomon's fur stood on end and crackled with the seething energy of her fury and her instinct was to kill the smith and destroy his workshop as a way to calm herself but Chatsuramon's words came back to her, '--your emotions cloud your judgment--'. As much as she hated to admit it, there was some truth in that statement. She calmed her ragged breathing and told herself to think. Think of someone who _did_ command the amount of energy she needed and of some way to coerce them into using it to free her instead of killing and devouring her.

The snarl of desperation slowly dropped from her face as an idea began to form in her mind. Any digimon that suited her purposes would be foolish to cooperate instead of merely taking her as a victim-- and who was the biggest fool she knew? Kunomon grinned and turned to the dubious smith. "Excuse me for frightening you," she said, smiling a smile that was no less frightening to the smith than her snarl had been. "I would like you to make something for me--" her mouth twisted strangely as she forced out a word she seldom used, "--_please_."

--o--o--o--

Kyuubimon had curled herself around so that Rika could use her flank for a backrest and Kaliskamon, not to be outdone, stretched out in front of his tamer to provide his forepaws as a handy place to put her feet. Both digimon glared at Kazu and Kenta who hadn't shut up for hours. Even now as the group sat around a comforting fire, in what should have been a quiet and relaxed time, the two boys kept chattering away, half of their talk being praise of Ryo and half of it complaints about their situation.

Rika seethed for a while and then her resentment boiled over in a brief and bitter exchange with Kazu. Kazu, of course, didn't know when to shut up. Rika came to a decision and stood up suddenly.

"Congratulations," Rika said, glaring at Kazu and Kenta, "you've got a new babysitter. Maybe he'll take you home to your mommies" She turned, made an impatient gesture with one hand to her two partners, and stalked away from the fire. The two digimon rose and followed her out into the darkness.

--o--o--o--


	4. Bargaining

--o--o--o--

Chapter 4

Bargaining

--o--o--o--

Snuggled beneath Kyuubimon's mass of tails, Rika slept just as warmly and comfortably as she would have next to the campfire. Her two digimon lay with their heads together and talked in nearly inaudible voices.

"We shouldn't have left," Kyuubimon said. "Ryo said he knew where the exit from this place was and splitting up isn't a good idea anyway."

"I don't think we had a choice," Kaliskamon said. "We had to follow Rika."

Kyuubimon bumped her nose gently against his. "Since when has my Wild One gone all spit-and-polish obedient? You argue with Rika every chance you get."

"Since we needed to not embarrass her in front of Wonder Boy."

Kyuubimon grinned. "That was sweet of you. I thought we were going to have to tackle Cyberdramon for a moment there."

"Pointless," Kaliskamon snorted, "and-- I dunno-- it would feel weird to kill a digimon who had a tamer."

"You're assuming we would have won."

"You think there's a chance we _wouldn't_ have?" Kaliskamon snorted again, "Lover, the data we've loaded from the devas we've taken down has made us more powerful than any other digimon of our level. We've practiced and trained and developed all sorts of techniques and strategies to deal with more powerful opponents and we work together like we're two hands of the same creature. Sure, that Desolation Claw attack of his was pretty damned powerful but we knew what to expect and Cyberdramon is the scream-and-leap type-- couldn't think his way out of a shallow hole in the ground. He wouldn't have lasted a minute against us.'

Kyuubimon wasn't as sure as her mate but didn't feel the point was worth arguing so she just nodded. "But shouldn't we try to convince Rika to return to the group in the morning? She'll have calmed down by then."

"And the Noise Boys will _un-calm_ her the first time they open their mouths. Sorry lover," Kaliskamon shrugged, "but I have to agree with Rika on this. We are going to have enough to deal with without being distracted and annoyed all the time."

"But Ryo knows the Digital World well-- at least this part of it. Having a guide would be immensely helpful, don't you think?"

"I think we'll do okay on our own-- and I wonder how helpful Ryo would feel like being-- after watching me savagely beat the Noise Boys with their own legs."

"Kaliskamon!"

"Oh come on," he huffed, "they're digital now-- they could probably take an enormous amount of damage without dying."

"Please don't joke about something like that," Kyuubimon said seriously.

Kaliskamon sighed. "Alright Kyuubichan-- but I'm only half-joking. Anyway, we'll cover more ground by ourselves and we'll have more freedom to search for our egg, too. Even if Ryo might know something about it, do you want to explain everything to him and Rika in front of Kazu and Kenta? I swear by Tesla's eye teeth, if one of them suggested being tamer to our child, I'd--"

"Shhh," Kyuubimon said, "you'll wake Rika."

Kaliskamon composed himself. "Sorry. But you can see the problem. I'll tell you what-- you suggest returning to Rika in the morning. I'll abide by whatever she decides."

"Thank you, lover." Kyuubimon smiled at him.

Kaliskamon stood and kissed her on the muzzle. "Get a bit of sleep. I'll keep watch."

--o--o--o--

"Ryo?" Rika scoffed. "Oh please, that hack couldn't tame his way out of a wet paper bag!"

"It was just a suggestion," Renamon sighed and gave Coyomon a brief glance that he correctly interpreted as "Don't you dare say 'I told you so.'"

The trio continued walking through the gear-studded landscape for several hours, one or the other of the digimon occasionally racing off in a side direction to scout for any change in the terrain that might indicate a way out of the clockwork country.

On one of those scouting trips in the later half of the day, Coyomon came across a formation of four small pyramids. In the square area between the pyramids was an oasis-like garden that had a tall sandstone arch at its center. Approaching the arch and looking through it, Coyomon could see a forest on the other side. He circled the arch and found that it opened to the forest from the other side too.

"Neat trick," he said to himself. "I have no idea where that is-- but at least it's--" he stopped talking suddenly. There had been a noise behind him. He spun, but couldn't see anything unexpected.

Then the noise came again.

Coyomon turned again, certain now of the direction and realizing that the noise was familiar. He couldn't sense anything obvious and was about to phase out when Kunomon saved him the trouble.

She grinned nastily as she let the shadow cloaking her slip away and spun the gray metal bo staff she carried in her right hand to make it buzz through the air a third time. "Hi, handsome," she sneered at Coyomon, "Did you miss me?"

--o--o--o--

"Coyomon's been gone a long time," Renamon said as she paced along behind Rika.

Rika grunted noncommittally.

Renamon looked to the distant horizon in the direction her mate had gone. "I hope nothing's happened to him."

Rika sighed but didn't stop walking. "Maybe he's found something-- or maybe he's off chasing clockwork butterflies. Who knows? Don't you think he's smart enough to take care of himself?"

Renamon stopped walking and Rika turned to face her, their eyes meeting in understanding. They turned and began to trot, side by side, the way Coyomon had gone.

--o--o--o--

Nearly an hour later Renamon's ears swiveled forward and her body tensed. "There's something coming."

Rika squinted at the horizon but without a digimon's acute senses, she couldn't detect anything. "Is it Coyomon?"

"No--" Renamon growled, "--too big."

Rika unclipped Renamon's digivice from her belt and popped the flap on her card pouch. The info disk blossomed into being above the digivice and Rika studied it. "I get a blip but no stats. It's too far away." She looked up to see her partner trembling with eagerness to be away. "Renamon," she said sharply and fox digimon's head snapped around to look at her. Rika made a short gesture with her head in the direction of the unknown digimon. "Be careful!" she yelled after the golden blur and she began to follow at a run.

Moments later Renamon skidded to a stop as she recognized the approaching digimon. "_Kaliskamon_?" she gasped in surprise. "What happened to you?"

The colorful Champion shook his head and spat out the staff he had been holding in his jaws so that he could answer her. "You're never going to believe this." He chuckled.

--o--o--o--

"So it's a straight trade you want? I get the shackle off of you and you give me the staff?" Coyomon said to Kunomon. "What's to prevent me from just killing you and taking it?"

Kunomon smiled sweetly, (which disturbed Coyomon more than he'd be willing to admit) raised her head to bare her throat, and closed her eyes. "Go ahead, handsome-- kill me."

"Shit." Coyomon said disgustedly. "You know I wouldn't do that."

Kunomon's smile seemed to be one of genuine pleasure. "Yes, I do-- so let's stop playing around and get down to business, hmn?"

Coyomon looked at the shackle that tied Kunomon to her deva master. He hooked his claws under the ring and pulled with all his strength. There was no sign that the metal ring had flexed at all. He took Kunomon's massive hand in his and squeezed her fingers together estimating how much bigger her fist was than the ring. Then he let go of her and began to walk up and down beside the oasis pool.

"What are you doing?" Kunomon asked.

"Thinking. Shhh."

"What do you need to think for? Digivolve! As Kaliskamon, you could bite this damn thing off of me. Don't forget, I _saw_ what you did to Pajiramon!"

"Good idea-- except for a couple of major flaws," Coyomon told her. "First, I don't know that, even at full strength, my Fire Bite attack would be enough to cut through chrome digizoid. Second, I need Rika to digivolve. Third, if we go find _her_ we also find _Renamon_ and, believe me, you don't want to get anywhere near Renamon-- unless you're feeling suicidal."

Kunomon went stiff and quiet. "_What_?"

"Listen," Coyomon said, letting exasperation creep into his voice, "I managed to talk her into _not_ hunting you down but if you walk right up to her there's no way in hell I could keep her from tearing into you."

"No, that's not--" Kunomon closed her eyes and was silent for a long moment. "What do you mean you need that human brat to digivolve? You did it by yourself when--"

"Yeah, and I never managed to do it by myself again," Coyomon interrupted her. "Calumon's got something to do with it. Without him, Wild Ones can't digivolve. He was there on the day I fought Pajiramon. But--" Coyomon paused and he looked questioningly at Kunomon who was now staring at him, eyes wide, "you've got to know about this. It was one of your devas who kidnapped him."

"Get this thing off of me," Kunomon said with desperation in her voice, as she shook her wrist at him, "get it off and you can have the staff and anything else you want!"

"Okay, okay," Coyomon said holding up both hands to calm her, "I think I know a way to do it. But--"

"But _what_?" Kunomon snarled.

"It isn't going to be easy," he told her, "and I want something more than just the stick. I want information."

"_Anything_." Kunomon hissed.

Coyomon sighed. "Okay. I want the information _now_. You know you can trust me to stick to my end of the deal-- I'm kinda stupid that way." He grinned at Kunomon.

She glared back but didn't disagree. She only asked, "Why now?"

"Because," Coyomon said as he pried up one of the heavy paving stones that ringed the pool, "afterwards, I don't think you're going to be in a chatty mood."

--o--o--o--

"You _smashed_ her hand with the stone?" Renamon asked, aghast.

"Yup," Kaliskamon nodded, "mashed it to a pulp and the shackle just slid off."

Rika went a bit pale and put one hand over her mouth.

"And-- and she just sat there-- and let you _do_ that to her?" Renamon gasped.

"Oh, _hell _no!" Kaliskamon laughed. "She did her best to eviscerate me! She may not be anywhere as near as strong as you, lover, but her Power Paw attack still packs one heck of a wallop! That's why I'm in my Champion form now. I could only half concentrate on the fight so she came damn near to clobbering me. I was thinking I'd have to run off before I finished the job when--" he spun around in a circle and the colored shapes in his fur did a fair imitation of the whirling helical bars of a digivolution vortex, "zoom, bang-- there I was! I had more than enough strength to hold her down while I finished the job-- and I even healed her up when I was done." He cocked his head to one side, considering. "Not that she was very thankful. It was a good thing I insisted on the information up front."

Both Rika and Renamon tried to talk at once. Rika silenced her partner with an impatient gesture. "If you digivolved, that's got to mean that Calumon's nearby!" she said, excitedly.

"Yeah," Kaliskamon nodded, "I thought of that and had a look around after Kunomon took off but I didn't see any trace of him. I didn't go through the gate to the forest country, though."

"Then that's where we need to go next." Rika said.

"Right-O, boss!" Kaliskamon yipped cheerfully.

"And the information?" Renamon asked quietly.

Kaliskamon knew exactly what she was hoping for. "Oh, a few tidbits about ways between the various areas of the Digital Dimension, some skinny on the devas and the Sovereigns-- yeah, that's _plural_-- and--" he winked at Renamon, "some other stuff."

He met Renamon's grateful smile with one of his own.

--o--o--o--


	5. Into the Woods

--o--o--o--

Chapter 5

Into the Woods

--o--o--o--

They hadn't quite reached the oasis between the pyramids when night fell like a rolling power outage, whole sections of the sky going black one after the other. Rika was impatient to hunt for Calumon but after looking through the gate at the solid blackness of the forest, she agreed it would be pointless to search until daylight. She did insist on stepping through to make a scan with her digivice, though.

"Weird," she mumbled, staring at the info disk, "No blips, but there are a bunch of blue speckles. I've never seen anything like it before." She slipped her thumb off of the button and the disk vanished.

Renamon had collected a pile of dry wood and Kaliskamon had gotten a good fire going by the simple expedient of chomping down on one of the thicker pieces and pumping a little Fire Bite energy into it.

"So," Rika said to Kaliskamon, as she settled herself near the fire, "Fill me in on all this information you got out of the other renamon."

--o--o--o--

Kunomon paced up and down the length of the dark forest clearing, nervously flexing her fists. She had tried to sleep but every time she closed her eyes she saw Kaliskamon's face above hers and remembered the feel of his powerful body pressing down on hers-- his tongue washing away the pain and ruin of her mangled hand.

"_Idiot_," she hissed explosively.

She growled as she thought about the last touch of his tongue-- that unnecessary, gentle caress on her cheek as he had said, "I'm sorry I had to hurt you."

She shook her head as if she could shake the memory of that afternoon out of it. "_Moron_!"

And he had _thanked_ her. Thanked her for the mix of lies and half-truths she had fed him. "_Fool_," she sneered as she unconsciously lifted her hand to touch the place on her cheek where he had kissed her.

--o--o--o--

"We need to tell Rika," Kaliskamon said to Renamon as they walked on the far side of the oasis pool from where Rika was sleeping. "As soon as we find Calumon, she'll want to join up with the others and return to the real world."

"We should have told her before now," Renamon replied, "but there never seemed to be a good time to do it-- or a pressing reason." She sighed unhappily. "We can't ask any of them to delay returning for our sake."

"I seem to remember that we've fought a heck of a lot of pretty tough bad guys for _their_ sake," Kaliskamon said in a disgusted tone of voice. "But-- yeah-- you're right. It would be awful stupid of them to go risking themselves for the sake of one little digimon."

"That's unfair and you know it." Renamon said, flicking one of his ears with a claw tip.

"What the heck do _I_ know about being fair?" he grumbled. "I bet Kazu and Kenta would be willing to stay if they thought they could pick up digimon partners in Primary Village. It'd be like a shopping spree for them"

Renamon shook her head. "Just because those two are greedy and foolish doesn't mean we should take advantage of them-- and I still have my doubts that Primary Village even exists. Kunomon may have lied to you."

Kaliskamon gave a shocked gasp of surprise. "A nice girl like that, tell a lie? How can you even _think_ such a thing?" His mocking intent would have been perfectly clear even if he hadn't made his fur colors form the blinking word "sarcasm" on his flank in glowing strokes of light as he spoke.

Renamon grinned and lightly backhanded him on the shoulder. "I'm not saying the possibility shouldn't be investigated-- I just keep remembering images of it from the TV show and it certainly didn't _look_ like a place that would be likely to exist in this dimension."

"Yeah, yeah," Kaliskamon sighed, "And you know something-- I bet that the others _would_ stay if we asked them. They're a good bunch of kids-- hell, they're frikkin' heroes when you think about it." He stopped walking suddenly and stood silently for a long moment, thinking. "And that's why we _can't_ tell them," he said finally.

"What?" Renamon frowned at him in puzzlement.

Kaliskamon shook his head. "It's Takato. I think Henry would be smart enough to realize they needed to get Calumon back to Earth to foil the plans of this cracked-brained Sovereign, Zhuqiaomon-- but Takato? Suffering Tesla, _that_ kid would _volunteer_ to stay behind!"

"Well," Renamon said slowly, "you may be right. But then what are we going to do?"

"They need to go back," Kaliskamon said, thinking out loud. "Rika shouldn't stay here and she needs a partner with her, so you need to go back with her. That leaves me."

"I don't like the idea of you being here by yourself." Renamon said.

"I don't like the idea of being parted from you, either" Kaliskamon replied, "but I can't think of a better way-- can you?"

Renamon was still and silent for a long while and then she shook her head slowly. "No, the Sovereign will surely make attempts to recapture Calumon and I need to be at Rika's side when that happens."

"Okay, then," Kaliskamon said in a casual voice, "I guess that's settled. We tell Rika so she'll know what's going to happen but we keep the secret from the rest of them, and I just stay behind when you all leave."

Renamon could hear how forced his seemingly offhanded manner was. He knew how dangerous it would be for him, alone and unable to digivolve beyond his Rookie form but he was willing to do it for the both of them-- for the sake of their child. She turned and crouched by the pool and stared into its dark surface. After a moment, she picked up a small pebble and dropped it in, making the glowing reflection of the Earth dance and waver. "This may be our last night together for a long while,' she said quietly.

"Yeah," he said sadly, sitting down behind her and resting his muzzle on her shoulder.

She turned in one supple movement and her arms went around his neck as her mouth met his and a fierce, loving kiss. He responded passionately but Renamon only continued the kiss for another moment before grabbing his cheek tufts and shoving his head back so that she could look him directly in his eyes. "Let's make it a memorable one, shall we?"

The air around her began to crackle.

--o--o--o--

"So," Rika said to Renamon in a carefully neutral voice, the next morning after her partners' plan had been explained to her, "you're staying with me and you," she turned to Coyomon, "are going to stay behind to look for this egg when we leave?"

"Yes Rika," Coyomon nodded.

Rika reached down to her belt and unclipped Coyomon's digivice and held it out to him.

"What?" he gasped. "Rika, I'm not leaving forever, it's just until I can find our egg and--"

"Sure," Rika said with cold fury, still holding out his digivice. "Whatever."

"Rika!" Renamon with hurt bewilderment in her voice.

Coyomon knelt before Rika and looked directly into her eyes. "Throw it away if you don't want it," he said, "but I'm not going to take it back-- _ever_. You're my tamer, Rika Nonaka, and you will be my tamer until one of us dies. I'll never have another, no matter _what_ happens."

Rika blinked and her hand wavered a little.

"If you don't want me to stay here, then tell me so, and I'll leave with you." Coyomon continued.

"But--" Rika lowered her hand slightly, "Your egg--"

"Is very important to me, yes-- but not as important as you are. It's your decision, tamer." He stared into her eyes, unblinking.

Rika scowled as she clipped the digivice back onto her belt. "We haven't even found Calumon yet. There's plenty of time to figure out what to do. Let's get going." She shouldered her pack, turned and stomped through the gate without another word.

Rika's partners followed her from a distance, knowing better than to crowd their tamer when she was in such a mood. "Would you really give up the search for our egg if Rika told you to?" Renamon asked Coyomon in a nearly silent whisper.

He shook his head slowly and whispered back, "Lover, I really have no frikkin' idea _what_ I'd do," he sighed. "What came out of my mouth back there-- I didn't know what I was going to say until I heard it myself. But," he paused, considering, "it _felt_ right."

--o--o--o--

Kunomon watched them from a distance until their search pattern became clear. A flock of curious digignomes followed them, making tracking them ridiculously easy. They were working their way toward the mountains, sweeping back and forth through the woods on the near side of the river.

"Mon, mon, Calumon--" she murmured quietly to herself, "to think I once planned on handing you over to the Sovereign for whatever crumbs he'd be willing to toss to me. Poor, stupid Coyomon-- letting your secret slip out. Now I know why you are so valuable."

The digimon she was holding down with one hand renewed his struggles briefly until Kunomon's powerful fist squeezed his windpipe shut. "You have to be quiet," she told him in an almost tender voice. "I don't want them to suspect anything until I'm ready to spring my trap."

She nodded toward the flat granite slab that lay in front of the small, clear pool of water nearby. "When they find Calumon, you'll use the magic of this spring temple to flood the river-- just enough to distract them long enough to allow me to snatch the little treasure away from them, understand?" She relaxed her grip enough for the little plant digimon to speak.

"As guardian of this temple, I will never misuse its magic in such a way!"

Kunomon shifted her grip over the digimon's mouth so that his screams were muffled when she slid one of her hooked black claws into an eye and tore it from his head. "Now, is that any way to talk to your next Sovereign?" she asked him sweetly.

--o--o--o--

"Hey!" Rika said suddenly, "I've got a blip!" One of the hovering digignomes floated over to look at the flashing display and Rika shooed it impatiently away.

"Which way?" Coyomon asked.

Rika pointed. "About five or six hundred meters away," she told him.

A minute or two later, they emerged into a clearing where a very weary and bedraggled Calumon sat, huddled between the roots of a massive, gnarled tree. He looked up suddenly, gasping-- and then shouted with glee as he recognized his friends.

"RikaRikaRika!" he sang out as he leaped into her arms, "I'm so glad to see you!"

"We're glad to see you, too, Calumon," Renamon told him, stroking his head affectionately.

Coyomon settled for a cheery wave. "Heya, creampuff! How are you--" his voice trailed off and he looked around nervously. "What's that rumbling sound?"

The digignomes fled.

--o--o--o--

A single, small dipper of water from the sacred spring, poured out onto the granite slab, would have been enough to cause a huge surge of water to rise up in the forest river. The temple guardian held the full dipper above the slab for only an instant, pretending to cooperate with his tormentor, before dashing the dipper of water into her face and making a break for the woods.

Kunomon lashed out and her claws ripped into the little digimon's back, slamming him to the ground. He cried out and flailed wildly, desperately reaching out for a handhold to pull himself out of the demonic fox's grasp. What his fingers found was the edge of a big wooden bucket and his panicked flailing tipped it over onto him-- and all its contents washed over the enchanted stone slab.

--o--o--o--

"_Woo Hoo_!" yelled Coyomon in glee as the roaring flood geysered up out of the rock tunnel it had carried them into. He watched the desert recede below them as the powerful column of water gradually lost momentum and his exhilaration momentarily waned as he considered the long fall they were about to take. Then he remembered just exactly who he was holding in the crook of his arm. He looked over to where Rika was clinging to Renamon's shoulders and yelled, "Hey, Kyuubichan!"

"What? I'm not--" then Renamon got it. Two digivolution vortices sprung into being side by side and the sheer strength of their Champion forms made the landing quite bearable.

"Wow," Rika said, "that was almost fun." She looked over at Kaliskamon who was grinning hugely at her around a mouthful of staff. "What?"

He dropped the stick to answer her. "I was just thinking that you would make one _heck_ of a great digimon."

"Uh-- thanks-- I think." But she smiled when she said it.

"Aren't those the three rock spires where we first landed?" Kyuubimon said, pointing at the distant horizon.

They raced off without noticing that, among the wreckage scattered across the desert by the magical flood, something was moving. Trembling, sodden, and nearly insane with rage and frustration, Kunomon dragged herself out of the muddy crater she'd blasted out of the hard ground when she hit.

--o--o--o--


	6. Reversal of Fortunes

--o--o--o--

Chapter 6

Reversal of Fortunes

--o--o--o--

Kyuubimon sat serenely, her tails fanned out neatly behind her and Rika leaned against her chest, arms crossed and a smug smile on her face while the rest of the reunited team made a huge fuss over Calumon.

Kaliskamon was rather less restrained. He danced around his tamer and mate, his fur colors flashing bragging words so quickly they were nearly illegible. _**RIKA RULES!**_ and _**BIG DAMN HEROES!**_ flickered across his flank as he spun and hopped joyously around.

"Hey," yelled Kazu after getting sprayed with sand by Kaliskamon's dancing paws, "knock it off, dude!"

"Sorry, _dude_," Kaliskamon replied, stopping his wild gyrations, "I can get carried away sometimes."

Kenta suddenly burst out laughing and Kazu turned to look at him, puzzled. Kenta just shook his head and tried to stifle his laughter as Kaliskamon strolled away to sit next to Rika and Kyuubimon. There was no way he was going to tell his friend that while Kaliskamon had been standing next to Kazu, he had flashed _**I'M WITH STUPID**_ across his flank, along with a moving arrow that left no doubt as to whom he was insulting.

Calumon was finally left alone to settle into an exhausted sleep in Jeri's lap while the friends updated each other on what had happened to them while they had been parted. Rika didn't mention anything about Kunomon or her partners' egg.

"Well, I guess we just need to find some way to get home," Takato said. "I bet our families are worried sick about us by now."

"It's too bad Ryo isn't here," Kazu said. "I bet he knows how to get out of here."

"Oh please," snorted Rika, with a quick side glance at Kaliskamon, "I bet he doesn't even know that devas can open up portals to the real world-- or that there are four main portals to Earth-- one in each of the Digital Realms."

There was a sudden shocked silence. "How do you know _that_?" Kazu asked with amazement.

"Rika picked up quite a lot of information after we left you guys and Wonder Boy," Kaliskamon said, in an offhand tone of voice. "It's really amazing the things a person can learn if they stop talking long enough to listen once in a while."

Kazu gaped like a feeding koi for a few seconds and then took in breath for an angry reply but the group was saved from a petty squabble by everything going to hell at once.

There was the sudden roar of a powerful engine and a huge black motorcycle flew over a low ridge of sandstone to slew to stop only yards from the group. Riding it was a demonic-looking figure that surveyed the team with a cruel smile on his face. "This is gonna be _fun_," he rasped and laughed in anticipation.

"Who are you?" Leomon demanded, his hand grasping the hilt of his nan dao.

Henry had his digivice out but the info disk remained stubbornly blank. "You a deva that was thrown out of the program?" he asked.

"I got my _own_ program," the strange digimon growled.

"That's the bike we fought," Takato pointed out.

Kyuubimon surprised everyone by stepping forward, staring the stranger in the eye and saying with near certainty, "Impmon?"

"Oh shit," muttered Kaliskamon and he started to edge slowly to one side to get a better attack angle on the intruder.

The demon digimon's face registered surprise for an instant and then anger. "That loser doesn't exist any more! This is my true form. The name's Beelzemon!"

"Tell me," Kyuubimon asked coldly, "what did you promise them?"

Henry's info disk finally started displaying information. "He's a Mega! Special attacks are Darkness Claw and Double Impact-- oh man-- they look deadly!"

"Oh, they _are_!" Beelzemon chuckled as he flipped what looked like a double-barreled, sawed-off shotgun on steroids into his hand and pointed it between Kyuubimon's eyes. "It's a simple trade-- your lives for _my_ life."

Kaliskamon lunged forward only to meet a second ugly weapon centered on his forehead as Beelzemon moved with incredible speed. "I got one for you too, _dog-boy_!"

Rika's clear, angry voice cut through the tension like a knife. "And I've got one for _you_-- loser!" she snarled and slashed the blue card through Kyuubimon's digivice.

Beelzemon flinched back from the digivolution vortex and an instant later the huge Taomon stood in Kyuubimon's place, sternly glaring down at him. Kaliskamon took advantage of his momentary distraction to phase out of sync.

As if triggered by Taomon's digivolution, the wind suddenly blew with terrific force and bolts of lightning danced across the landscape. Data beams skittered across the desert like seismograph needles during an earthquake. Taomon's first thought was for the safety of the group and she cast a Talisman Spell to surround them with a protective energy dome.

Beelzemon looked around in confusion, not willing to believe that Rika's card had caused all the turmoil but not willing to fight under such sudden and inexplicable conditions. "Aw nuts!" he snarled, flipping his weapons into their holsters, "I'll finish this later!" He slammed the motorcycle into gear and roared away, spraying sand.

The moment of relief that most of the group felt at Beelzemon's departure was short-lived. Only moments later, Chatsuramon, the dog deva, stepped out of the swirling sandstorm to confront them. "It's over for you and your humans," he bellowed to be heard over the wind.

"Not just yet," Taomon said serenely, knowing that her mate was out there, unnoticed, beyond the protective spell.

Rika began to read off the deva's stats from her digivice but Chatsuramon's patience was at an end. He launched a Howl of the Heavens attack on Taomon's protective dome just as Kaliskamon slammed a Razor Tail attack into his head. The unexpected attack deflected Chatsuramon's aim but enough of the energy got through to disrupt the spell and the full force of the wind slammed into the team, scattering them across the desert.

For moments, all was confusion. Digimon were grabbing for their partners protectively, as they were tumbled in the storm. Bright red flashes told of some unlucky ones blown into the paths of data streams and ripped away. Chatsuramon searched frantically for the small white digimon that was the real objective of his attack.

"Looking for something?" called a voice from behind him.

The deva swung around to see Kaliskamon standing braced against an outcropping of rock, with Calumon safely tucked into a small fissure behind him.

"Give him to me!" Chatsuramon roared.

"Does that outraged act _ever_ work?" Kaliskamon asked as he stalked toward the deva, his mouth beginning to steam. "I'm really going to enjoy puttin' the tooth in your pompous ass!" he snarled and leaped.

The full force of Chatsuramon's Howl of the Heavens attack blasted into Kaliskamon while he was still meters from reaching the deva. He was thrown back and crashed into the side of the mesa so hard that he caused a small landslide of rock that nearly buried his twisted and broken body.

Taomon had just managed to reestablish her protective dome around the remaining team members and hadn't seen what had happened to her mate. But Rika had.

"Kaliskamon, _no_!" she wailed.

Chatsuramon ripped at the rock at the mouth of the fissure where Calumon cowered, growling in frustration as he tried to dig out the tiny digimon. Henry, Takato, and Terriermon were gone. Rika was staring unbelievingly at the unmoving body of her partner, Jeri was huddled, sobbing in Leomon's arms, and Guilmon was staring forlornly at the patch of sky where his tamer had disappeared. There was no fight left in the team.

"Somebody help me!" Calumon cried in terror-- and the small red triangle on his forehead glowed to life.

Rocks and gravel spattered across Chatsuramon as the blossoming vortex's phase energy blasted away the debris that had covered Kaliskamon and the diminished team all gasped at the sight of a new digimon emerging from the rubble.

Rika wiped the tears from her eyes with an impatient hand so that she could see the readout of her digivice. "Istaqamon, Ultimate, Fire Vortex and Star Scatter," she read aloud to the group and then yelled into the storm, "Istaqamon! _Walk all over him_!"

The towering digimon in the golden armor turned his massive head to give a polite nod to his tamer. "As you wish," he rumbled. The heavy iron-shod lance in his right hand flared with crimson ghost fire and spun into a blurred disk, growing brighter by the instant.

Chatsuramon shook off his astonishment and took a breath to launch his devastating Howl of the Heavens attack once more. Istaqamon threw his spinning lance and it became a flaming helix of raw energy that exploded as it impacted in the surprised deva's gaping maw. The giant dog was hurled backwards, slamming into the desert's surface and plowing a deep furrow into it with his body. He groaned and struggled to rise, but an enormous clawed paw thudded into his shoulder and pushed him back to the ground.

Istaqamon shook his armored canine head sadly. "You've been a bad boy-- no biscuit for you," he said and rammed the flaming point of his lance between the deva's ribs and wrenched, scattering Chatsuramon's data to the winds.

The storm departed as suddenly as it had come and Rika ran out to Istaqamon who knelt to greet her. "You had me worried there for a second or two, flea-bag," she said to him gruffly.

"I'm sorry about that, Rika," he smiled, "I thought a short nap under a comfortable pile of rocks would do me some good."

Taomon's expression remained serene but her eyes were joyful. She looked him up and down admiringly. "Everything's changed but your juvenile sense of humor."

"Yeah," Istaqamon wagged his enormous tail, "thank Tesla for _that_, huh?" He stood and looked back toward the rest of the team. "I saw the beams flash. Who did we loose?"

"Takato and--" Rika began but was interrupted by a cry from Kenta.

"He's gone! He's gone," he shouted, "It took him!"

"What?" Rika frowned, "took who?"

Kenta pointed to the crack in the rock that was now obviously empty. "Calumon! It took Calumon!"

Taomon loomed over the panicky boy. "Calm down, Kenta. Tell me, what was it that took him and which way did it go?"

Kenta looked up at Taomon with wide eyes and pointed. "It was--" he swallowed hard. "--it was like you-- I mean before--"

"Take a deep breath and relax, Kenta," Taomon said, "You're not making any sense."

"Yeah, dude," Kazu put in unhelpfully, "Get a grip!"

Kenta took two deep shuddering breaths and said, "It was another renamon."

Istaqamon slammed the butt of his lance into the ground and the point shot a great gout of flame upward from its tip. "Oh for fuck's sake!" he roared.

"Istaqamon! Taomon!" Rika called up to her towering partners. They both looked down at their tamer. "Taomon, you have to stay with the group in case Beelzemon comes back. Istaqamon--" Rika smiled wickedly and flung out an arm in the direction that Kenta had indicated. "_Get 'er_!"

Istaqamon's lips wrinkled back from his dagger-like fangs. "With _pleasure_, Rika!" And he sprinted after Kunomon.

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

**Author's Note:**

**Istaqamon is pronounced "ees-tok-a-mon".**

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**


	7. The Shining Digivolution

--o--o--o--

Chapter 7

The Shining Digivolution

--o--o--o--

"Please don't hurt me," Calumon whimpered.

Kunomon didn't even bother to look down at him where he rested against her hip, bound securely and hung from a cord running around her waist. "Shut up or I'll tear your tongue out," she hissed, almost absentmindedly, as her eyes carefully scanned the horizon.

Calumon squeezed his lips together as hard as he could and shivered.

--o--o--o--

Istaqamon stood on a mesa top, using all his senses to try and detect a hint of Kunomon's whereabouts. The ceaseless wind had scoured her tracks and scent from the desert and the out-of-phase appearance of the Digital Dimension was so strange to him that he was having a hard time making sense of it.

In the real world, all matter became a soft translucent blue when viewed from slightly out of sync, leaving only the bright glows of various sorts of energy, which were obvious and eye-catching. The problem Istaqamon was having was that _everything_ in the Digital Dimension was bright, moving energy. There was no matter at all, only complex standing waves in the Higgs Field masquerading as clumps of molecules. A seemingly solid lump of sandstone became a sparkling surface of coruscating fractal spirals when viewed from a few degrees out of line of the entropic flow.

Finding the aura of a particular digimon in all that visual noise was like trying to hear a whispered conversation while standing next to a running jet engine-- nearly impossible even if that digimon didn't have a very good reason to remain hidden. To add to Istaqamon's dilemma, it was much harder for him to phase out in his current form. He could only manage to do it for a few seconds at a time-- nowhere near long enough to systematically search the landscape. He was sure Kunomon was still nearby or he would have caught sight of her trying to flee but there were thousands of places she could have hidden herself away.

"Think!" the massive Ultimate growled to himself. "Where would she have gone?" For all her cleverness and talent for deception, he was sure that Kunomon let her instincts guide her more often than not. "She's a renamon-- she's got the same basic nature-- what would _my_ Renamon do in her place?"

The answer came to him abruptly. He had noticed the slender spire of rock earlier. It was almost delicate-looking by comparison with the other massive outcroppings of stone and, most importantly, significantly _taller_.

It was the high ground.

--o--o--o--

Kunomon watched the giant armored form of Istaqamon race across the desert. He seemed to be heading for the abandoned village beyond the dry riverbed. She watched him cast about, searching for some sign of her, no doubt. But his progress was obvious-- he'd be far from her cave by nightfall and then she could slip away.

"So _powerful_," she whispered to herself as she watched him, remembering the ease with which he had destroyed Chatsuramon. The remembrance of the ignominious death of her former tormentor brought a smile to her face. "Soon _I _will be that strong-- no-- _stronger_!" She kept watching until he disappeared beyond the edge of a neighboring mesa and then retreated to her cave.

She sat, and lifted Calumon into her lap, examining him carefully. "How do you do it?" she asked him.

Calumon's eyes were wide with fear and he kept his mouth firmly shut.

"You can talk now," Kunomon said with a sigh. "In fact, I'll hurt you if you _don't _talk."

"Okay," Calumon squeaked, "I'll talk! What do you want me to talk about? If I'm good, will you let me go back to my friends? I'm sure you're a very nice person but I like them a lot and--"

"_Shut up_!" Kunomon snapped at him and Calumon flinched away from her. She growled in frustration. "Just answer my questions, understand?"

Calumon nodded.

"Good," Kunomon said softly, doing her best to remain calm. "Now, tell me-- how do you trigger digivolutions?"

"Huh?"

Kunomon squeezed her eyes shut and her jaw muscles jumped as she clamped her mouth down on a scream of anger. After a moment she took a deep breath and continued. "You make digimon digivolve to higher levels--"

"I do?"

Kunomon went completely still and the pupils in her violet eyes shrank to pinpoints.

"No, no," Calumon cried out in terror, "I really don't know what you're talking about! Please don't kill me!"

Kunomon glared down at the cringing little digimon. Just one squeeze and he'd burst like an over-ripe fruit. The feel of her claws sinking into his soft little body would be _so_ satisfying. But she knew couldn't kill him without losing the key to unbelievable power-- unless Coyomon had lied to her. The thought startled her and she relaxed her grip on the sobbing Calumon. No, she'd _seen_ it happen-- watched the mark on the little digimon's forehead blaze into life. Coyomon had been chattering away with blithe unconcern when he'd let the secret slip. If he'd been lying, he was better at deception than she was-- and Kunomon couldn't believe that.

That meant that Calumon really didn't know.

Kunomon composed herself. "I'm sorry-- I didn't mean to frighten you," she said in as kindly a tone as she could manage. "I'm just upset because I really, really need to digivolve and you are the only one who can help me do it."

"I am?" Calumon sniffled.

"Yes," she said. "You've done it before, even if you don't realize it." Kunomon tried to stroke Calumon's head but he flinched away from her touch. She clamped down on the sudden flare of rage that his reaction triggered in her and simply set him down in her lap.

"Think about what happened when Kaliskamon digivolved into Istaqamon. How did you feel when that happened?"

"Well--" Calumon said doubtfully, "my head went all funny. That happens sometimes."

"At times when your friends are digivolving?"

"Oh-- yeah," Calumon said with a nervous little laugh, "I guess so. I never noticed that before."

Kunomon resisted the urge to beat him against the cave wall while screaming, "How can you be so incredibly _stupid_?" and smiled at him instead.

"Do you think you could make that funny feeling happen if you tried to?" She glanced around at the cave. It was big enough to accommodate a kyuubimon. "Think _hard_," she said, just the hint of a growl creeping into her voice.

"I think--" Calumon began hesitantly.

"Yes?"

"I think it happens when someone _needs_ it to happen. Like when one of my friends is in trouble. That feeling just comes from inside of me somewhere," he said, frowning with concentration.

"Inside of you?" Kunomon said and then suddenly phased out, dragging Calumon with her.

"Ooh," said Calumon wonderingly as he gazed around at the shimmering landscape, "so pretty!"

Kunomon ignored his babbling and stared hard at him, scrutinizing his aura and internal energies. At first glance he seemed to be perfectly ordinary, a typical digimon with a simple anatomy mimicking the basic structure of a biological creature, but there was something else, something strange, hidden inside of him where it was barely detectable. It revealed itself in the way it disturbed his body's energy, like a wake in a murky pond created by a fish swimming just below the surface.

"Yesss," Kunomon hissed as she puzzled out the slowly turning geometric shape inside of Calumon's head. Satisfied, she dropped back into sync.

"Oh," Calumon said in disappointment, "where did all the pretty lights go?" He looked up at Kunomon and when he saw the look in her eyes he began to tremble.

--o--o--o--

After ostentatiously heading away from his target, Istaqamon circled back to the rock spire, carefully examining the structure of the rocks at its top. He couldn't know for certain but finally decided on what he thought would be the most sheltered side to approach it from. If Kunomon saw him coming her only choice would be to flee and the chase would be on again. If she didn't-- well, that was what he was hoping for.

He leaped and climbed upward pausing occasionally to listen and sniff the air. He phased out once or twice but still couldn't make much sense of the glittering vista.

He felt an eagerness to close with his enemy that was tinged with regret. "Damnit," he cursed to himself during a pause to scent the wind, "I really hope I don't have to kill her."

--o--o--o--

"I _need_ to digivolve," Kunomon growled at Calumon, as she held him up in front of her face, "and you're going to make it happen or--" she placed her other hand on top of the little digimon's head, estimating how much force it would be necessary to use to rip off the top of his skull. Not much, was her guess.

Calumon shivered in her grip. "I'm _trying_!" he whined.

Suddenly the cave went dark. Sunrise and sunset in the Digital Dimension were abrupt events, the light in the sky disappearing or appearing with startling swiftness. But night should have been hours away. Kunomon gasped and turned to find the entrance to her cave blocked by the enormous head and one shoulder of Istaqamon.

"Hi honey," he grinned at her viciously, "I'm home!"

--o--o--o--

"Do you think he's caught her by now?" Kazu asked pointlessly, as the group plodded along in the general direction that Istaqamon had gone.

After the kidnapping of Calumon, Taomon had explained to the group that Kunomon was a spy for the Sovereign that she and Coyomon had run into in the real world. She made no mention of Coyomon's earlier meeting with her, thinking herself lucky that Henry wasn't there. He was a pretty bright kid and would probably have asked some very hard questions.

Now returned to her Rookie form, Renamon said, "If he hasn't, I'm sure he will soon."

"But, jeeze," Kenta grumbled, "even if he does bring Calumon back, we still have to find Takato and Henry and then find a way out of here."

"Not the stroll in the park you were expecting, is it?" Rika snarled at him, eager for a good shouting match to relieve some of her tension.

"But everything's going to be all right, isn't it?" Jeri said hopefully.

Rika rounded on her. "Grow up! Stop acting like a baby!"

Jeri was startled by this sudden attack. "What do you mean?" she asked in a quavering voice.

"You're a _tamer_ now, so get tough!"

"I'll try harder." Jeri said in a voice that sounded on the edge of tears.

Rika couldn't believe that she was stuck with such a useless crew. "We just don't have the luxury of being soft. You have to learn that this isn't a game, Jeri. There's serious stuff at stake here!"

"_Rika_," said Renamon to her tamer in as severe a voice as she had ever used with the girl, "she _said_ she'd try harder, so let it go, would you?"

Rika was startled by her partner's sudden rebuke but realized she was taking out her own doubts about the situation on Jeri. She glanced up at Leomon who was walking silently, staring straight ahead as if the conversation hadn't happened. "Renamon's right. I'm sorry Jeri."

"Okay--" Jeri said in a quiet submissive voice.

Rika walked on, thinking she'd almost be glad to see Ryo again if he would take the other tamers off her hands.

--o--o--o--

Kunomon crouched at the back of her cave snarling at Istaqamon and holding Calumon up in one fist as if to use him as a shield.

"Let him go," Istaqamon rumbled at her and then seeing her glance sideways and misinterpreting her look, "don't try phasing out-- I'll have you in a instant if you do that."

Kunomon snatched up a sizable boulder with her free hand and shifted to one side of the cave.

"This is pointless," Istaqamon pleaded with her, "you don't like the Sovereign any more than we do. Why don't you join us? You don't have to have a tamer--" he almost smiled at the thought of Kazu or Kenta trying to control the vicious Kunomon, "--but there's strength in teamwork, too. Having friends--"

"_Shut up_!" Kunomon screamed at him. "You think I want to trail after your pathetic band of losers? No! I've got the secret to digivolving on my own and I'm going to become so powerful I won't need to depend on _anyone_! I won't ever be afraid again! _I'll_ be the one everyone fears!"

Istaqamon looked at her for a long moment without speaking. When he finally spoke it was in a voice heavy with regret. "I'm sorry Kunomon, but I can't let you take him. You see, he's not just a tool or a weapon, he's also my friend." As he spoke, he shifted position so that he could thrust one of his huge gauntleted hands into the cave. Kunomon tensed and lifted the boulder.

"That's a pretty pathetic weapon you have there," he observed dryly as he raised the energy for a Star Scatter attack.

"Against you?" Kunomon sneered, "Of _course_ it is. Try opening your eyes, _fool_!"

Istaqamon frowned and noticed for the first time that she held the rock in a way that would have been useless for a throw or even a crushing swing at Calumon. She held it high and to one side of her body, above-- an egg.

Tiny, brilliant shafts of light sparkled from within Istaqamon's closed fist. His lips wrinkled back from his fangs and his eyes blazed with crimson radiance. His voice was nearly unintelligible when he roared out, _"YOU BITCH!"_ He opened his fist and a swirling cloud of thousands of points of light rose into the air.

Kunomon flinched from the sight. This was no ordinary brute-force attack. This was something that might be able to save the egg as it destroyed her. She screamed out a hopeless, wordless cry of frustration and fear-- and Calumon screamed with her.

The red triangle on the tiny digimon's forehead flared into life.

Kunomon's scream turned to a gasp of surprise as a digivolution vortex blazed into being around her.

And the boulder fell from her hand.


	8. Life Lessons

--o--o--o--

Chapter 8

Life Lessons

--o--o--o--

Istaqamon frantically tried to redirect his Star Scatter attack-- but it was too late. The tiny streaks of light hissed through the air where the falling stone had been only a fraction of a second before and were scattered by the turbulence of the evaporating vortex of energy surrounding Kunomon. The brilliant particles spattered against the rear wall of the cave, harmlessly winking out as they burned a myriad of pits into the sandstone.

The first thing Black Kyuubimon was aware of after the vortex disappeared was Istaqamon's howl of grief-- so intense in the small, enclosed space, that she could _feel _the sound beat against her body.

It wasn't just sound. Istaqamon had tried to stretch his hand out to the egg and been prevented by his massive size. Even pushing with all of his might, he couldn't force himself further into the cave and so he was shedding energy. The roiling strength of his Ultimate form flowed out of him so violently that the very structure of the digital stone of the cave's mouth wavered for an instant. He flickered through his Kaliskamon form briefly as he lunged for the rear of the cave and was Coyomon when he knelt above the crushed egg.

Coyomon flung the stone off of the egg, desperately hoping that the damage might somehow be slight-- that there might be some way to save his child. He reached toward the broken shell and then drew back, not daring to touch it for fear of doing more harm. He phased out of sync and saw what he most dreaded-- the tiny glow of energy in the ruined egg was quickly fading away.

Black Kyuubimon watched him reappear into normal space. He was in his Rookie form-- nowhere near a match for her new strength even if he _had _been willing to fight-- and he had his back turned to her. It was the perfect opportunity.

The violet ghost fire at the tips of her seven tails flared brightly and grinning, evil faces formed in the flames. Her Venom Fire attack was at full strength and she had only to give a light flick of her night-black tails to launch it at her helpless enemy. One subtle movement and she would have her revenge on the bastard who had contemptuously spurned her offer of partnership-- who had almost thwarted her plans for greatness-- who knelt before her, weeping for his lost child.

Coyomon had placed his hands on the broken shell of the egg and a soft red glow pulsed under his palms. She could see the flow of his energy and data passing through the small, still form half hidden beneath the fragments of shell. It flowed out through the tiny creature's wounds and dissipated uselessly into the ground.

It was Black Kyuubimon's moment of triumph. Her enemy was completely at her mercy.

Mercy.

The faces in her ghost flames lost their evil grins and faded away as she took a hesitant half step toward Coyomon. She opened her mouth but remained silent. She felt an urgent need to speak to him-- and had no idea what to say.

Coyomon finally realized his efforts were only delaying the inevitable and he let his hands drop away from his child. He slowly turned his head to look at Black Kyuubimon and the magnitude of the hatred in his eyes made her flinch back from him, the evil faces in her ghost fire instinctively reappearing.

Tiny red sparkles of light formed around Coyomon's trembling hands. He had no chance to win a fight against Black Kyuubimon in his weakened Rookie form but all he wanted to do was hurt her as much as possible. If it cost him his life it would be worth it-- just to hear a cry of pain from her one last time.

Calumon saw Coyomon rise, snarling from the cave's floor and what was about to happen was perfectly obvious even to that foolish little digimon. "No! No, please don't," he wailed, swinging helplessly from the cord that circled Black Kyuubimon's waist-- and in his anguish, the mark on his forehead blazed to life once again.

--o--o--o--

Guilmon sat silently beside Renamon as the rest of the group listened to the chief Gekomon's tale of woe. They had fallen through the treacherous sands of the Iron Desert into this wooded area only a few hours ago and now they were immersed in a complex tangle of other digimon's problems.

Guilmon sighed. How would they ever find Takato now? They weren't even _trying_. He missed his tamer terribly. His friend Coyomon was gone, too. When he rescued Calumon and returned to where he had left them, would he think that they had deserted him? And, if that weren't enough to worry about, the slightly sour smell of fermentation wafting from the Gekomon's sake brewery reminded him of the yeasty smell of fresh bread. His stomach rumbled loudly and Renamon glanced down at him. He grinned apologetically.

She gave him a reassuring smile and patted his head gently before returning her attention to the ranting Gekomon.

Guilmon thought about how much nicer she had become since she had tried to blast his head off the first time they met. She and Coyomon had become really good friends and she was probably missing him nearly as much as he was missing Takato.

He reached over and patted her hand in return.

--o--o--o--

The digivolution vortex blazed into shape, its whirling, helical bars releasing bright arcs of energy into the surrounding rock.

Black Kyuubimon stared at the vortex in disbelief, then shuddered and turned her head to gaze back along her dark flank to where Calumon hung. The little digimon seemed just as surprised at what was happening as she was. Black Kyuubimon realized that she still had no command over Calumon's power and that he would always be as much help to her enemies as he was to her until she learned to control him. Her only safety lay in keeping him far away from other digimon until she learned his secrets. She leaped out of the cave in a single bound, landing on the edge of the mesa and jumping in a powerful arc up into the sky, phasing out as she did so.

The dim red sparkles of Coyomon's incipient Fang Flurry attack whirled away in the turbulence of the vortex as his hands fell to his sides. He tried desperately to see what was happening inside the phase energy field as it spun and pulsed around the remains of his shattered egg but could only catch meaningless glimpses of something beyond.

When the vortex began to fade, after what seemed to Coyomon to be an eternity, he felt a shock of horror and disappointment sweep through him. The egg was still broken-- pieces of shell dropping away as the last of the swirling vortex energy dissipated.

No-- they _weren't_ dropping away-- they were being _pushed_ away as the moving form within the egg struggled to be born.

The fragments of her shell faded into nonexistence as she unfolded from the egg and stood, impossibly tall to have come from that small object. She looked around at her simple surroundings in wonder and smiled at the digimon who stood next to her. He was smiling too, even though his cheeks were streaked with tears. He felt familiar to her somehow-- a reassuring presence in her first moments of awareness. "Hello," she said, finding her voice. It was a soft, almost musical sound that nevertheless carried a sense of quiet strength, "I'm Ceyamon. Who are you?"

--o--o--o--

Orochimon's breath made Renamon's eyes water even when he wasn't consciously using the powerful reek of alcohol as a weapon. When she got a full blast of it, it made her head swim. She silently cursed the absence of her mate. Leomon had almost collided with her during the first attack and was now fighting as if he were the only digimon involved. If Coyomon had been there she was certain that their teamwork would have had the hydra digimon's necks tied in knots and too confused to mount any sort of defense by that time.

Renamon slammed feet-first into one of Orochimon's heads, the blue ghost fire of her Power Paw attack bursting through its skull and fragmenting it and the long neck attached. The other heads remained unaffected and one swung at her, its gigantic fangs slamming together, missing her by a hair's breadth. Renamon smacked it under the jaw with a bicycle kick, thinking with regret about how much fun Coyomon would have been having if he had only been there with her.

--o--o--o--

Coyomon nearly stumbled several times while running across the uneven desert terrain with his daughter. He kept turning to admire her and lost track of the upcoming dips and rocks in his path. She was, unsurprisingly, mostly a blend of her parents' characteristics but also had some unique traits of her own. She had all of her mother's suppleness and grace and seemed to be just as strong as her father despite her willowy figure. Her tail wasn't the prominent, thick banner of Renamon's but it was nearly as long and beautifully colored and marked, as was the rest of her body.

Ceyamon glanced over at her father, a joyous smile on her graceful muzzle. Her emerald eyes sparkled with exhilaration as they sprinted across the sand; her long, sharply pointed ears and cheek and shoulder tufts streaming in the wind.

"Hey," Coyomon shouted to her as they ran, "Would you like to play a game?"

"Yes!" she cried joyfully.

"Okay," he said as he scooped up one of the rolling balls of old data that were common in that place. "It's called Don't-Drop-the-Baby--"

They spent the next hour tearing around the landscape laughing and behaving like a couple of complete idiots. Coyomon had a motive in addition to just celebrating the existence of his daughter-- he was also evaluating her abilities. He got quite a shock. She was stronger and faster than he was and her aura blazed more intensely than any Rookie's he had ever encountered. Maybe the digivolution vortex had something to do with it. Coyomon was sure Ceyamon had been in her Child form as she lay dying in her crushed shell. But, then _he_ had hatched into his Rookie form as had Guilmon. He just didn't know enough about digimon lifecycles to figure it out.

The ball of data finally fragmented and swirled away on the wind.

"Aww," Ceyamon said as she watched its bits fade away.

"It's okay," Coyomon told her, "we should be getting back to the others now, anyway. Once you meet your mother we can show you an even better game. It's called _sparring_."

"My mother--" Ceyamon said with childlike eagerness, "Is she really as pretty as you said? She'll like me, won't she? Is she a good fighter? Can we--"

"Yes," Coyomon interrupted her, "yes, yes, and yes! She will love you just as much as I do-- oh yeah, and you'll get to meet real humans!"

"Are they nice? Are they good fighters?"

"Most are nice. They're all different from each other but none of them are very good fighters by digimon standards. It's when they partner up with a digimon that they get-- well-- that'll take a lot of explaining. You'll see."

Ceyamon clapped her hands together in glee and spun around in a circle. "I can't wait!"

"_I_ can," Coyomon said in a suddenly sour voice. "I'm going to have to explain to Rika that I lost Calumon."

--o--o--o--

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

**Author's Notes:**

**1) Ceyamon is pronounced with a soft C - "Say-a-mon".**

**2) Yes, the Gekomon were brewing sake. The American dub of the series protected the younger kiddies by representing the drink as "milkshakes" because the folks behind the BS&P believe that small children would be irreparably damaged by even the **_**mention**_** of alcohol in a cartoon show.**

**Pussies.**

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**


	9. Bringing Up Baby

--o--o--o--

Chapter 9

Bringing Up Baby

--o--o--o--

_"Kazu, you MORON!"_ Rika bellowed.

"Hey, don't get personal, Rika!" Kazu huffed, "I was just trying to take care of my partner."

"And you thought that 'taking care' of him meant pouring a whole bucket of sake down him?"

"Well, it had all those energy thingies mixed in. It worked okay for Orochimon, didn't it?" Kazu stubbornly kept trying to defend his actions. "There was plenty left over and all the Gekomon were drinking it."

"Yeah," snorted Rika, "and _look_ at them!" She turned and booted one of the unconscious little frog digimon, not very gently, who groaned, rolled over, and began to snore again.

"At least their snoring isn't as bad as their singing. Though their singing is better than _some _people's," Renamon put in, staring hard at Kazu.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Rika shook her head in despair and sighed. "Oh, never mind. I guess we'll just have to hang around here until Guardromon is fit to travel." She glanced over at the big red robot who was lying on his back and mumbling something unintelligible while waving his hands vaguely in the air. Kenta was bending over him, futilely trying to make some sense of his babbling. Rika turned her back on them and walked off, making a little hand motion that told Renamon to come along with her.

"What amazes me," Rika said to her partner as they strolled down to the lake, "is how _hard_ Kazu had to work to do something so incredibly stupid. Guardromon doesn't even have a mouth!"

"Gives a new meaning to 'down the hatch', doesn't it?"

"Was that a joke, Renamon?"

Renamon looked calmly at her tamer, "If you have to ask-- I suppose not."

"Coyomon's certainly had an effect on you-- you never used to have a sense of humor--always the grim, bad-ass fighter."

"Humor can be a very effective weapon." Renamon said in a deadly serious voice.

Rika stopped and turned to look at her partner. Renamon met her gaze for a moment with a fierce expression and then couldn't help grinning. Rika sighed, rolled her eyes and continued down the path.

"I hope flea-bag can keep his sense of humor when he can't find us where we were supposed to be," Rika said a few moments later. "I wonder how he's doing?"

--o--o--o--

Coyomon slammed hard into the ground and tumbled over and over a few times before bouncing to his feet and shaking sand out of his ears.

"Ooh!" Ceyamon cried out, "I'm sorry! Did I hurt you?"

"Naw," he smiled at her, trying not to wince at the pain in his ribs, "That was a perfect feint! It fooled me even though I _knew_ you were going to try something like it."

"So I did good?" she asked.

"Perfect!" he beamed at his daughter, "You took what I taught you and then, instead of just imitating it, you used it in your own way. That's just what I was hoping for."

Ceyamon gave her father a broad smile of pleasure. "So, I'll be ready for a real fight soon?"

Coyomon laughed. "Sweetie, you were ready before the last bit of your shell fell off of you! I'm just putting a little polish on the gem."

"I want to make you proud of me," she said, "I want to make _Renamon_ proud of me. I hope I'll get to meet her soon."

"You will, sweetie," Coyomon reassured her, "I don't know why they weren't here to meet us but they must have had a good reason to take off. We'll just have to wait here until they get back. If we go off looking for them we might never meet up."

"I know," Ceyamon said a little sadly.

"Hey, no frowning!" Coyomon admonished her with mock sternness. "If you give me a smile I'll show you this nifty combo I learned from a Jackie Chan movie."

Ceyamon grinned-- and then asked, "What's a movie?"

--o--o--o--

Guilmon, Leomon and Jeri were sitting by the edge of the water quietly talking when Rika and Renamon arrived.

"Hey, tamer!" Rika called out to Jeri as she approached.

Jeri turned and smiled. Rika had been calling her "tamer" since she had come up with the novel modify card that had let Leomon finish off Orochimon and Jeri felt a swell of pride every time she heard it "Hi, Rika! How's Guardromon?"

"Still dead drunk and babbling like an idiot."

Leomon grumbled disapprovingly, deep in his throat.

"I guess we're going to have to spend the night here, then?" Jeri asked.

"Looks like it," Rika replied. "Well-- at least we'll get a bit of time to relax." She had barely finished speaking when the proximity alarms of all three digivices began beeping. Rika flipped Renamon's into her hand and activated the info disk. "Me and my big mouth," she grumbled. "It looks like a big one."

--o--o--o--

"It's a big one," Coyomon said to Ceyamon as they crouched on a mesa's edge watching the Dark Tyrannomon stomp across the desert below, "but that doesn't mean much. These dino-types are usually slow and nearly always as stupid as a bag of hammers. They telegraph their attacks and--" he turned to where his daughter had been, "--and I'm talking to thin air, aren't I?"

Sure enough, Ceyamon was already halfway down the side of the mesa, yipping with exuberance at the prospect of her first real fight.

Coyomon leaped after her, biting back a curse. He built up energy for a Fang Flurry-- just in case.

Ceyamon charged straight in, yelling at the top of her lungs, giving Dark Tyrannomon plenty of time to turn around and ready himself for her attack. He sucked in air for a Fire Blast attack but Ceyamon leaped straight up just before he could launch it. He tried to follow her but his thick, inflexible neck wouldn't let him look far enough up. He turned, assuming she was trying to get behind him and whipped his massive tail through the air in a wide half circle. Nothing.

Dark Tyrannomon was beginning to turn again, becoming dimly aware that he was facing an opponent that was much more dangerous that he had first assumed, when Ceyamon fell past his head. He bellowed and staggered back from the force of the Whisper Claw attack that sliced down through his cheek and neck. Ceyamon landed gracefully in front of the huge dinosaur digimon and, as his head twisted back, leaped straight up and slammed both fists into the underside of his jaw and followed up with a lightning fast bicycle kick. Teeth the size of paper party hats scattered across the sand.

The dino's massive tail whipped around again and Ceyamon flipped herself over it, doing an immediate jump-turn and hitting the dino in the shoulder with a powerful flying kick using all the strength of both her legs. Dark Tyrannomon not only was knocked over-- he half rolled onto his back from the force of the impact. Ceyamon waited patiently, standing with her hands on her hips as Dark Tyrannomon struggled back to his feet. He faced her, seemingly having a hard time focusing his eyes.

Ceyamon smiled, lifted one hand, and waved. "Bye-bye," she said in her musical voice and her eyes blazed-- literally. Her Razor Gaze attack ripped through the dinosaur digimon's massive head and he fragmented into swirling bits of data. She giggled sweetly as she drew in his energy.

Coyomon gaped at his daughter, letting his attack energy dissipate and feeling a sudden sympathy for Dr. Frankenstein. He desperately wished he could see the readout from a digivice on her.

She danced back across the sand to her father and stopped, uncertain when she saw his expression. "Didn't I do it right?" she asked in a subdued manner.

"Sweetie," he said with real feeling, "you did it perfectly. Better than I could have, that's for sure."

"Really?" Her face lit up again.

"Really." He shook his head in wonder. "I'm a habitual liar, but I'd never lie to _you_, Ceyamon. That aerial feint was perfect and you hit him just where he _wasn't_ expecting it-- over and over again."

"Then--" she began, suddenly shy again, "-- what was wrong-- just now? I saw it in your face."

"I--" he groped for the right words, "--I was just _surprised_. You're much stronger than I'd any right to hope for. I think you may be a natural Champion level."

"But that's good, right?"

"Yep," he grinned, "it's great!" He stood silently for a while and then said, "I guess the next thing is to teach you some basic teamwork."

"I get to fight side-by-side with you?" Ceyamon's eyes lit up. "Oh, that sounds like fun!"

They strolled off together, chatting happily, Coyomon outlining the basics of two-on-one fighting and Ceyamon stumbling over herself verbally, wanting all of her myriad questions answered at the same time.

--o--o--o--

Jeri bit her lower lip, struggling valiantly to project the image of a confident tamer, as the huge, dark digimon floated toward the group. It didn't help that her digivice was giving her no information on the intruder. Leomon stood with his arms crossed over his massive chest, eyes narrowed and Guilmon was on his feet, growling.

"Piece of junk!" Rika growled, slapping the side of her own digivice. The info disk flickered for a second but stubbornly remained blank. She heard a sharp intake of breath from Renamon and looked up. The unknown digimon was still too far for her to make out any details but its outline seemed familiar, somehow. "What is it Renamon?"

"Something bad," her partner said grimly. "Get a blue card ready."

Rika didn't hesitate. She flipped a blue card out of her pouch and held it ready between her first and middle fingers. Just as she was beginning to make out some details of the enemy, her info screen came to life. "Yinmon, Ultimate-- specials are Night Rune and Sigil of Darkness. I'm guessing this isn't one of the cuddly types."

"It's Taomon!" Jeri gasped.

Rika's head shot up. "No it's not! It's all black and--" her voice trailed off. There _was_ a resemblance. If Taomon had been night black, dressed in tattered rags instead of flowing robes, and had only a small white triangle for a marking instead of several taijitu--

Renamon suddenly snarled explosively, making both Jeri and Rika jump in surprise. Rika hadn't heard such pure venom in her partner's voice in a very long time. "That's _Kunomon_-- and she's got Calumon with her!"

"But-- if she's here--" Rika began.

_"Where is Coyomon?"_ Renamon hissed through clenched teeth as Yinmon came within hearing range.

"Misplaced your so-called mate? How careless of you." Yinmon sneered, her ragged clothing slowly flapping and twisting about her form as if there was a breeze moving around her.

"Calumon!" Jeri called up to the shivering little digimon who hung around Yinmon's neck, enclosed in a metal cage barely bigger than he was. "Are you all right?"

"Answer me!" Renamon and Jeri shouted at the same time.

Distain and cruelty disfigured her face as Yinmon smiled. "The little one knows better than to speak without my permission. As for you--" she turned her gaze on Renamon, "--your _mate_ was pathetically easy to defeat."

Renamon froze and her pupils shrunk to pinpoints. Her armguards creaked as her fists squeezed down into, tight, hard masses. "_Rikaaa_--" she rumbled through bared fangs. Her partner placed the corner of the blue card into the top of the slot in her digivice but didn't slash it.

"He begged me not to kill him," Yinmon's smile grew more twisted, "and he died screaming for mercy."

"Oh," Renamon sighed, taking in a relieved breath, "you lying bitch, you almost fooled me!"

"What?" Yinmon was nonplused. "He's _dead_, I tell you!"

"Pft! Yeah, _right_," smirked Rika. "If you'd told us he'd gone out joking or singing, we _might_ have believed you but you didn't do a darned thing to him, did you?"

Yinmon simply stared at her in amazement. She'd never spoken to a human before and now this tiny girl was staring up into her face, confidently mocking her in her mightiest digivolved form.

"But you know something?" Rika gave her the sweetest smile imaginable. "We're _still_ going to kick your lying butt." And she slashed the blue card through Renamon's digivice.


	10. Not Making Sense

--o--o--o--

Chapter 10

Not Making Sense

--o--o--o--

The fight was short and--_bizarre_.

While Taomon's digivolution vortex was still spinning down, Yinmon flicked the cage that hung around her neck with a huge finger and then pointed that finger at Guilmon. "That one," she said.

Calumon's forehead mark blazed to life and a second vortex spun into being around the little red dragon.

"What's she doing?" Rika hissed to Taomon.

"I don't know," Taomon replied, "but whatever she's up to can't be good for us."

"Because it's all about _you_, isn't it?" Yinmon sneered and flung a Night Rune into the vortex surrounding Guilmon. It was sucked into the spinning maelstrom and disappeared. Her move was so unexpected that none of the others had a chance to stop it.

"That's it!" Rika shouted, "Taomon, take her out!"

"Jump for your master-- _slave_!" Yinmon spat as Taomon slid her gigantic calligraphy brush out of a sleeve. From somewhere in her ragged clothing, Yinmon pulled a gnarled staff that rippled with barely visible violet flames at one tip.

The two giant Ultimates drew their magic symbols at nearly the same time. The Talisman of Light and the Sigil of Darkness met each other halfway between their creators and flared into eye-searing brilliance. The symbols expended their titanic energies against each other until only a ghost of the Talisman was left. It hit Yinmon on one shoulder and forced her back a step. Almost immediately Leomon's Fist of the Beast King slammed into Yinmon's other side and she cried out and went to one knee.

Growlmon stepped forward and his maw blazed with the fiery energy of a Pyro Blaster. Yinmon flung a Night Rune at the blast of flame that seemed to take some of the force out of it but it still knocked her flat.

"Be careful of Calumon!" Jeri yelled, needlessly. All of the digimon were targeting their attacks as precisely as they could.

"Don't worry," Taomon reassured her, and flung out her sleeves with a flourish.

The tiny bits of red paper that made up the Thousand Spells attack shot out of her robes and whirled around Yinmon, their razor edges ripping into her-- and Taomon would have smiled at the scream of agony she gave out if Taomon had been in the habit of smiling.

The problem was that Calumon was also screaming.

The digivolution vortex that erupted around Yinmon was startlingly powerful and Jeri groaned in dismay. Rika felt like doing the same but she kept her lips pressed together in a tight, grim line.

The figure that emerged from the vortex was huge and heavily armored but otherwise more like Kunomon's original form than any of her other digivolutions. Beneath her dark gray armor could be seen bits of gold and white fur. Her tail was topped with a long line of spiked metal lames but the underside was a familiar brush of fur. The most striking difference was the pair of powerful wings that sprouted from her back.

"Arisimon," Rika read from her digivice through gritted teeth, "Mega. Her specials attacks are--"

"--killing insolent humans," Arisimon finished for her and lightly flicked the butt end of the huge poleaxe she held in her right hand up and into Rika's chest. The girl's digivice flew from her hand as she cartwheeled into the bushes lining the shore and landed in a limp heap.

Taomon gasped and clutched at her chest, writhing in agony.

"Pitiful," Arisimon observed. "Coyomon said that tamers were your great strength. All I can see is an obvious weak spot."

"You will pay for that!" Leomon roared, and flung another Fist of the Beast King attack at her. She flipped the blade of her poleaxe around and blocked it without bothering to look away from Taomon.

Arisimon held out her free hand and flexed her armored fingers. "I should thank you for what you've done for me." She slowly let a smile spread across her face. "But I won't." She leaped into the air with one powerful sweep of her wings and flew off toward the distant mountains, vanishing from sight within moments.

Taomon knelt over Rika's body and placed one huge hand across her back.

"Is-- is she okay?" Jeri asked.

Taomon didn't answer. Actinic light flared beneath her hand the sharp smell of ozone stung her nose. She poured more energy into Rika's unmoving body, shuddering with the effort. Finally, Rika gasped and twitched and Taomon's body flared briefly into brightness and then shrank into her Kyuubimon form.

Rika sat up and groaned. Jeri threw her arms around Rika and cried, "Oh Rika! I'm so glad you're okay! I was afraid you were dead and then Taomon healed you and--"

"Yeah, yeah," Rika said, pushing Jeri away, "don't get all choked up about it. I'm fine. Where's Arisimon?"

"She's gone," Kyuubimon told her. "She just flew away."

"What? Then what was the point of attacking us in the first place?"

"Maybe--" Kyuubimon began hesitantly.

"Spit it out," Rika told her.

"Maybe she needed us to trigger her digivolution."

"Okay," Rika nodded, "that _sort of_ makes sense. But then what about making Guilmon digivolve? That makes no sense at _all_."

"No," Kyuubimon admitted, "no it doesn't."

--o--o--o--

"Y'know," Coyomon said to his daughter, "I just can't believe how fast you learn."

Ceyamon smiled, pleased by her father's praise. "It's all so fun! Even talking with that Elecmon and tricking the Jagamon. There's so much more than fighting!"

"Oh yeah," Coyomon grinned at her, "just wait until you taste doughnuts!"

Ceyamon glanced up. "What's that?" she asked, pointing at a spot high above the mesa they were sitting on.

Coyomon turned and gazed into the distance. "Hmn-- big damn something or other, that's for sure."

"Fight or talk?" Ceyamon chirped.

"With something that big and maneuverable, it's usually up to them," he told her, shading his eyes with one hand while trying to make out some details of the large flying digimon that was fast approaching them. "Which reminds me-- there's another effective technique that I haven't taught you yet."

"Really?" she asked him eagerly, "what's that?"

"Running and hiding."

The sky flickered and abruptly snapped into darkness in sections.

Coyomon grinned. "_That_ should help."

--o--o--o--

"I didn't know that could be done," Leomon remarked quietly to Kyuubimon as they sat near the fire in the night. Growlmon and all of the children were asleep.

"The healing? It could only work in the Digital Dimension. Here, Rika's digital body can accept a direct upload of energy and data. In the real world such a technique would probably electrocute her."

"I never thought about how vulnerable Jeri was before now. I always do my best to protect her, of course, but I saw how easily a tamer can be hurt today."

Kyuubimon said nothing.

"Not that I'm saying you did anything wrong, of course." Leomon hurried to add. "These things can happen."

Kyuubimon said nothing.

"I would like to be prepared," Leomon continued, shifting uncomfortably "in case it should ever-- _happen_ to Jeri."

Kyuubimon lifted her head from her forepaws and looked at him. "Yes?"

"I would be very grateful if you could teach me that technique."

Kyuubimon was silent for so long a time that Leomon thought he must have offended her in some way.

"If there is some reason why I should not--" he began.

"No," Kyuubimon interrupted him. "I can see that it would be a good thing for you to know. It's just--"

Leomon wisely waited silently for her to continue.

Kyuubimon sighed. "Hold out one finger." Leomon did so. Kyuubimon extended a forepaw and lightly touched Leomon's fingertip. "Now, think of what it feels like to absorb an opponent's data and-- and--"

"Yes?"

"_Promise_ me you'll never mention this to Coyomon."

Leomon blinked in surprise. "Uh-- of course, I--" Then shock hit him.

--o--o--o--

Coyomon watched from his hiding place as the gigantic figure stood in the night, surveying the desert by the light of the Earth overhead. It lifted its armored head several times as if scenting the air. It was obviously searching for something-- or someone. Through the darkness Coyomon could make out a few details of the figure and he was tortured by uncertainty.

Finally he couldn't stand it any longer. "Ceyamon," he said just loud enough to be audible an arm length away.

"Yes father?"

"I'm going to do something really, really stupid in a minute."

"Why?" she asked, frowning in perplexity.

"My coyote nature, I suppose," he replied. "I just hope you got the common sense part of your brain from you mother. Anyway, if things go badly I want you to stay hidden and wait for Renamon and the others to get back."

"I want to go with you!"

Coyomon shook his head. "No. You have to stay here. As your father, I'm _ordering_ you to stay out of this." He sighed at her hurt expression. "It's because I want to keep you _safe_. If there's only one other lesson you ever learn from me--" he continued, rising and brushing sand off his fur.

"Yes?" he daughter asked in a subdued voice.

"Never, _ever_ do something as dumb as this!" he winked at her and threw himself off the mesa, crying out in a loud, cheerful voice, "HEY! You with the wings and the nifty stick! You looking for me?"

--o--o--o--

Growlmon woke up suddenly and looked around sleepily. Leomon and Kyuubimon were still sitting at the fire but they were on opposite sides and facing away from each other.

"Did something happen?" he asked, yawning, "I thought I heard a noise."

"No!" Leomon said sharply. "Nothing at all happened!"

"Oh," Growlmon said, shocked by the force of Leomon's reply, "okay--"

"Go back to sleep, Growlmon," Kyuubimon said softly. "You'll need to be well rested for tomorrow. You may have to carry Guardromon if he's not up to walking."

Growlmon didn't understand why his friends were acting so strangely but shrugged and settled back down again.

--o--o--o--

Coyomon had tried very hard for a long while to be more thoughtful before he gave into his impulses but he found that, if he tried to do much in the way of planning or analyzing, his thoughts became tangled up with all the possibilities of a situation. The leap-_then_-look approach had worked out okay for him so far but this time he was wondering if he was going to survive to regret it.

The towering digimon in front of him _had_ to be the digivolved Kunomon. He could now see Calumon in a tiny cage hung around her neck and it wasn't very likely that some _other_ digimon that just happened to look like a giant armored renamon with wings had captured the little guy. Not likely at all.

So now he was stuck. Trying to flee a digimon that powerful was just pure suicide. There was a slight chance that she wouldn't be able to phase out in this form but he was only going to risk it as a last resort. Besides, he had his pride to think of.

He had no idea what her mood was but, given all that had happened between them, he didn't think she'd looked him up to give him a bouquet of flowers. Still-- relaxed confidence was the best way to deal with most situations-- even if it had to be faked.

Coyomon stopped about thirty meters from her, not because he wanted to keep a safe distance between them but because she was so tall that any closer and her breastplate would begin to obscure his view of her face.

He stood with his hands on his hips and said in an easy voice that completely belied his real feelings. "Hey there, kiddo! You're looking great!" his gazed traveled over her imposing form. "Have you lost weight?"

--o--o--o--

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

**Author's Notes:**

**In the Digimon Tamer series after the defeat of Orochimon, we see Rika's group listening to the celebrating Gekomon in the forest country. The next time we see them, they are back in the Iron Desert and Renamon and Guilmon have digivolved into their Champion forms for some reason. No explanation is given. It's like there's a missing scene or episode in between. Always bugged the heck out of me, so I decided to fill in the gap in my own, rather improbable, way.**

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**


	11. Negotiations

--o--o--o--

Chapter 11

Negotiations

--o--o--o--

"Are you _completely_ insane?" Arisimon demanded of Coyomon.

"I don't know the exact percentage, if that's what you're asking," Coyomon told her calmly, "but crazy stuff is sort of my specialty. It's a coyote thing." He cocked his head to one side. "So, what have I done now?"

"I could crush you like a bug," she said in a cold voice that scared Coyomon more than if she had screamed the words at him.

"Why would you?" he asked in an easy, conversational tone of voice, all the while keeping his hands firmly pressed against his hips to keep them from trembling. "When you think about it, I've got a lot more reasons to want _you_ dead than the other way around. But I've had a chance to cool down and think things over. I backed you into a corner-- and that whole rock thing was defensive on your part-- you didn't even drop it on purpose-- I don't think you _would_ have." Coyomon smiled as he lied. "My kid is just fine, so I think we ought to let bygones be bygones-- heck, you've gotten exactly what you wanted out of this whole deal-- I've never seen a more powerful digimon in my life!"

"You're unbelievable," Arisimon said, this time with a reassuring growl in her voice.

Coyomon grinned widely, "Why, thank you!"

"It wasn't a compliment."

Coyomon shrugged. "So, now that you're all big and stuff do you think--"

"Your child," Arisimon interrupted him. "I'd like to see your child."

"Oh--" Coyomon said, "--she's with Renamon and the others. I thought she'd be safer there. Still a young little thing, you know."

Arisimon swung the haft of her poleaxe into her left hand and raised it for a strike. Violet flames erupted from the blade and Coyomon began frantically calculating attack angles, trying to decide between jumping over the blade as it swung or dashing forward to get inside its range. Arisimon held the huge weapon aloft for a few long moments and then released the haft and grounded the shaft, letting the attack energy dissipate.

"Whoa!" Coyomon exhaled in relief. "Was it some thing I said?"

"I told you-- I want to see your child."

"Um-- sure-- but like I told you, she's back with the rest of the group and--" Coyomon trailed off when he saw the wicked smile on Arisimon's face and he groaned and put a hand over his face, "--and she's standing right behind me, isn't she? Damnit, Ceyamon, I told you to stay hidden!"

"But she was going to attack you!" came Ceyamon's musical voice from behind him.

"Not very obedient, is she?" Arisimon smirked. "I like that."

"Are we going to talk or are we going to fight?" Ceyamon asked cheerfully.

"Look, Kunomon," Coyomon began, "You've seen her now and you and I need to talk about some stuff, so howabout you let her--"

"It's _Arisimon_ now, and I know just what you want to talk to me about. The answer is 'no'. Calumon is _mine_."

"Well, if there's no way I can convince you to release him--" Coyomon tried to make his voice sound as casual as possible, "--I guess we'll be going."

"No," Arisimon said, "No, you won't"

--o--o--o--

Some fifteen minutes after Growlmon's breathing had become slow and even, Leomon spoke again.

"This-- _technique_--" he began.

"It should never be used except in emergencies," Kyuubimon said, quietly but firmly interrupting him. "It transfers more than just energy and raw data. The results could be unpredictable."

Leomon was silent for a moment and then asked, "How do you know that?"

Kyuubimon said nothing.

"I'm not stupid," Leomon rumbled, "This explains a lot of things. I can see now that this is something you and Coyomon have shared-- and not just in _emergencies_."

Kyuubimon said nothing.

"What do you _see_ in that clown?" Leomon kept his voice down to avoid waking the others but his irritation showed in the way he growled his words. "You're a _real_ warrior like I am-- serious and determined-- he's-- he's a--"

Kyuubimon lifted her head from her paws and turned it to face Leomon, raising a lip up to reveal her teeth-- and said nothing.

"I don't mean to be insulting. I just don't understand--"

Kyuubimon rose to her feet and took a few steps around the fire. "What Coyomon and I share together is none of your business-- but for the sake of harmony within the team, I will make this one effort to explain it to you," she said in a voice of pure ice, leaning in to stare directly into Leomon's face. "Coyomon and I are partners just as much as Rika and I or you and Jeri but even more than that, obviously. What we share is not some casual thing for the sake of mere pleasure. It's an expression of our _love_ for each other. The only reason I consented to even touch the outer edge of this 'technique' with you is for the safety of our team in a very dangerous situation. You can be the most 'serious and determined' warrior in the Digital Dimension for all I care-- Coyomon is my _mate_ and you'll never equal him in my heart and I don't give a damn whether or not you understand _why_ as long as you know it's _true_."

Leomon blinked at her. "I apologize, Kyuubimon. You are quite correct. It is none of my concern."

Kyuubimon returned to her place on the other side of the fire and lay down again.

After a few moments, Leomon gathered the courage to speak again. "I just want you to know that I admire you greatly-- and if things were otherwise--" he turned to look at Kyuubimon but she had rested her head on her forelegs, closed her eyes, and was pretending to be asleep.

--o--o--o--

"So, do you have to put energy into your weapon or does it have a supply of its own?" Ceyamon asked curiously. "What happens if you drop it? Does it go away when you de-digivolve?" Coyomon was trying to stop his daughter's flood of questions with frantic hand gestures but she was too absorbed in evaluating Arisimon's capabilities.

"Is your armor chrome digizoid? Why does it come in different colors anyway?"

"Ceyamon, please!" Coyomon finally said in exasperation.

Ceyamon stopped and cocked her head at her father. "But you said I should learn as much as possible about my opponents. Ooh, that reminds me," she continued, turning back to Arisimon, "do you have any particular weak spots or vulnerabilities?"

Arisimon turned her massive head to Coyomon. "She's never been brutally beaten, has she?" It may have been her attempt at a joke but there were some areas that Coyomon's sense of humor didn't stretch to.

"You'll have to kill me first." He said quietly.

"A nice appetizer before the main meal?" Arisimon sneered.

"You might just choke on me." Coyomon retorted.

Ceyamon looked back and forth between them uncertainly. "So-- are we going to fight or _eat_? Father says eating is lots of fun but I've never tried it. I hope we can find some doughnuts because he says they're really good but it would be okay if we had something else because--"

"Ceyamon." Coyomon's tone of voice stopped her chatter immediately. "I will try to delay her as long as possible. You run as fast as you can-- find your mother and the rest. This is the last thing I'll ever ask of you, so please, _please_ do as I say."

"Wait," Arisimon commanded. "You may yet survive this night, Coyomon."

"I don't give a damn about me, just as long as you don't touch my daughter!"

"'Daughter'--" Arisimon repeated, "--that's a human concept. Your emotions weaken you as always and yet--" She knelt on one knee, placed her poleaxe on the ground, and bent her head until it was just above Coyomon's. "--you have killed devas, the mightiest of Zhuqiaomon's servants."

"'Possible Choking Hazard'" he quipped.

"Perhaps you _irritated _them to death." Arisimon growled.

"Was that a joke?" Coyomon grinned, "Maybe there's hope for you after all!"

"There is more than hope--" Arisimon said seriously, "--there is _certainty_."

"You lost me."

"Look at me!" Arisimon commanded, "What other digimon is as powerful?"

"None I've ever met," Coyomon admitted, "but there are probably a few. The Sovereigns, I guess--" His eyes widened in sudden comprehension, "Oh!"

"Not as stupid as you'd like other people to think, are you?"

"Holy, freakin' Tesla! You're going to go up against the Sovereigns?"

" Zhuqiaomon first." Arisimon's grin was frightening, "I have a score to settle with him. I gave him my loyalty freely and he gave me to Chatsuramon like I was an _object_."

"Well--" Coyomon said uncertainly, "--good luck with that, I guess."

"Luck is for _fools_. Zhuqiaomon has his devas-- and I want my own band of warriors at my back."

Coyomon opened his mouth and then shut it again. He looked down at the sand for a long moment. Ceyamon, puzzled, took in a breath to speak but he held up a hand to silence her and she said nothing, but took a few steps to stand close behind him. Arisimon waited patiently and finally Coyomon spoke.

"You have no plans to conquer the real world?"

"Why should I want to rule a world full of pathetic, weak humans when I can have all this?" Arisimon sneered and stood, opening her arms wide to indicate not just the Iron Desert but all of the Digital Dimension. " Zhuqiaomon's ambition is insane."

"And if I refuse?"

"All that stands in my way will be destroyed." Arisimon said. "If you will not join me, I will have to consider you an enemy-- and that--" her voice softened for an instant, "--that would be regrettable. Make the wise choice for once in your life."

"I don't understand," Ceyamon said quietly, as she lightly placed a hand on Coyomon's shoulder.

Coyomon placed one of his own hands on top of hers, reassuringly. "It's okay, sweetie." he said, "Daddy's gonna be a deva."


	12. Knocking on Heaven's Door

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

**Author's Note:**

**Links to sketches of Kunomon, Ceyamon, and Arisimon are now up on my bio page.**

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

--o--o--o--

Chapter 12

Knocking on Heaven's Door

--o--o--o--

Istaqamon stood beside Arisimon, watching the quarrelling devas. He had often wondered why the Sovereign hadn't sent all his devas to Earth at one time. Now he thought he knew: Digimon did not play well with others. Getting a handful of different types to cooperate was a Herculean task at the best of times-- away from their master's direct control it would have been impossible.

Arisimon handled the situation with her usual lack of grace and restraint. She held out one armored hand and a blaze of crimson energy flowed into it from the two Ultimate devas who had been about to turn their argument into a real fight, leaving behind two very surprised and very ordinary Rookies. Her poleaxe flashed down, obliterating one Rookie, and then swung up again above the other.

Istaqamon interposed the haft of his lance, preventing Arisimon from killing the cringing agumon. She gave him a glance full of meaning. He would have a scant few seconds to justify his action.

He lowered his lance and addressed the little yellow dinosaur. "What is your Sovereign's first rule?" he asked in a voice that sounded as if it could etch steel.

"'No fighting amongst ourselves'," the agumon dutifully replied.

"Did you dislike the power she gave you so much?"

"No! I-- I forgot myself! I'm very sorry, it will never happen again!" This last he directed to the scowling Arisimon.

Istaqamon waved the end of his lance through the dissipating cloud of data that had been the other digimon. "_That_-- is the penalty for a bad memory." He looked pointedly at the other devas. "I am sure no further examples will need to be made." He turned and bowed deeply to Arisimon. She gave him a cold stare for a moment and then tapped Calumon's cage with a finger and pointed to the agumon. Dark energy flowed from Arisimon's hand, mixing into the digivolution vortex that took only seconds to transform the agumon back into his Ultimate form.

Metal Greymon knelt before Arisimon. "Thank you, my Sovereign Lady," he said. But he glanced aside toward Istaqamon as he said it.

Arisimon waved the deva to his feet, then turned, walked away, and motioned for Istaqamon to follow her. They climbed the ridge of rock overlooking the Great South Gate.

"Looks like the Guardian has gone AWOL," Istaqamon observed, "all the better for us."

Arisimon wouldn't allow herself to be distracted. "Explain your actions back there."

Istaqamon was getting to be able to tell the difference between various shades of anger in Arisimon's voice. He was fairly sure this was a mild form. "You can't afford to loose any more devas. You had to throw this group together in an awful hurry and there's no time left to replace any of them before we attack. We may need every single one to win. Besides," he allowed himself a small grin, "the rest will be all the more loyal for that bit of mercy."

"Very well," she said. "But there will be a price for thwarting me in front of my servants."

"The only time you ever smile is when you're about to do something particularly nasty."

"You promised to obey me. You've broken our agreement and so--"

"Oh, no!" Istaqamon shouted angrily, "No, you _don't_!"

Ceyamon phased in at his side. "It's all right, father, I _want_ to fight with the rest of you!"

Istaqamon knelt and gripped her by the shoulders. "You don't understand! We are going to go up against one of the four most powerful digimon in existence and there's a good chance we may all be destroyed. I can't lead you into that sort of danger!"

"Okay," Ceyamon gave him a brilliant smile, "Then I'll go _first_."

Istaqamon nearly screamed in frustration. Ceyamon put a hand firmly on his wrist. "Istaqamon," she said in a serious tone of voice he had never heard her use before.

He bit back what he had been about to say. She had always called him "father". This was the first time she had ever used his name. "Yes, Ceyamon?" he asked quietly.

"I'm _powerful_. I'm a blend of the best of you and Renamon-- you've said so many times-- and you've given me better training than any digimon has ever had before. I love you for wanting to keep me safe but I'm a _digimon_-- fighting is what I'm _made_ for." She gazed up at him earnestly with her clear, emerald eyes. "Please, father, let me _fight_."

Istaqamon didn't trust himself to speak. He simply let go of her shoulders, touched one finger to her cheek in a tender gesture, and nodded. After a moment he took a deep breath and turned to Arisimon. "Okay-- now that I've been schooled by my own child, let's get on with it. But _without_ your tricky little backdoor in the mix."

"Why should I agree to that?" Arisimon asked.

Istaqamon just looked at her silently and after a long moment she nodded. He was a bit disturbed by how well they had come to understand one another. He lowered his gaze to the unhappy little digimon in the cage that hung around her neck. "Hey, creampuff," he said in a sad, gentle voice, "make it a good one for my kid, will you?"

It hurt him to see the hopeless look in the little digimon's eyes. He hoped that Calumon's spirit hadn't been completely broken by Arisimon's brutal treatment. If things worked out, he'd have an opportunity to free the little guy sometime soon. If they weren't all killed by Zhuqiaomon first, that is.

The vortex bloomed.

"If you get her killed, I'm going to kick your ass from one end of the Digital Dimension to the other," Istaqamon said to Arisimon conversationally. The Mega just chuckled as the vortex faded away.

Kayamon's legs were as elegantly sculpted as her previous form's-- she just had two _more_ of them in her new body. Her animal shape was long and lean-- almost delicate looking-- and had mostly kept the same colors and patterning as her bipedal form.

Istaqamon was grinning broadly. He clanked an armored elbow against Arisimon's breastplate. "Is my kid a _looker_, or what?" He popped out of phase for an instant and when he became visible again he wasn't smiling. "Arisimon, check this out-- I've never seen anything like it."

Arisimon flickered out of phase for an instant while Kayamon did a graceful little dance, trying out her new body.

"There seems to be some sort of energy armor surrounding her." The Mega said when she reappeared. "There's a lot of power there." She turned to Istaqamon and smiled nastily, "I think you'll be better off worrying about your _own_ safety."

"Hey, sweetie," Istaqamon said as he knelt beside his daughter and placed a hand on her shoulders, "have you got a handle on your new abilities?"

"Oh yes!" she sang out joyfully, "I've got some _great_ attacks and I can--"

"Good, good," Istaqamon patted her on the shoulder and stood up. "Then we've got to get moving while we still have the element of surprise."

"And now that the Guardian of the South Gate is absent?" Arisimon asked of him.

Istaqamon grinned. "We walk right in like we've been invited to a Birthday celebration."

Arisimon nodded with satisfaction. "Call my devas to battle," she commanded him.

"HEY, YOU UGLY BASTARDS!" Istaqamon bellowed to the waiting digimon, "TIME TO _PARTY!_"

Arisimon sighed and rolled her eyes.

--o--o--o--

"He's only got a couple of devas left," Istaqamon whispered to Arisimon as they approached the huge door to the central chamber of the Sovereign's castle. "I'm more concerned about Beelzemon. I don't really know what he's capable of but he's _strong_. If he shows up we need to nail his ass _fast_!"

"Why, Istaqamon," Arisimon smirked, "I do believe you're nervous! We've been over all that before-- there's no time for doubts now."

Istaqamon grimaced. "It's just that it's been too easy! We waltzed in here with no resistance at all!"

"Wasn't that the idea?"

"Well-- _yeah_-- but my plans _never _work out like they're supposed to!"

"_Now_ you tell me."

He turned to goggle at her. "Holy Tesla, you _do_ have a sense of humor!"

"I _must_ have. I made you my Captain, didn't I?"

Captain Istaqamon just gaped at her.

"Close your mouth and announce me," she waved a hand at the imposing portal.

Istaqamon waved the devas forward and raised the butt of his lance to pound on the vast door before him. "Open for Lady Arisimon, True Sovereign of the South!"

There was a brief pause that felt like an eternity to Istaqamon. He was just beginning to realize how silly he'd feel if it turned out that the Sovereign wasn't home when the immense doors swung open to reveal the audience chamber of Zhuqiaomon.

The titanic phoenix digimon was _not_ amused. "Who _dares_ to lay claim to my title?" he roared in a voice of flame, spreading his four gigantic wings until they brushed the walls of the enormous chamber.

Arisimon strode forward with no more apparent concern that if she were approaching a friendly puppy. She took something from Calumon's cage that looked like a tiny bead in her huge hand and flung it to the floor of the chamber where it spun with a ringing sound, quicker and quicker until it clinked to a stop. It was a simple circular band of chrome digizoid.

"You gave me the name Kunomon and put that thing on my wrist," she said, pointing to the shackle with the end of her poleaxe. "Now I have become Arisimon and I am your destiny-- your _doom_!"

Zhuqiaomon's great beak opened to reply but Arisimon was through with talk. She swung her poleaxe above her head and its blade erupted with violet flaming energy.

"GO!" Shouted Istaqamon to the devas clustered behind him as he flung out an arm, "go, _go, GO!_" They sprinted around the periphery of the chamber, surrounding the astounded Sovereign.

The storm of glowing blades from her Blazing Axe attack flooded from Arisimon's poleaxe to rip into Zhuqiaomon's throat only seconds before Istaqamon loosed his Star Scatter attack. Kayamon was a blur as she leaped high over the phoenix, her tail trailing a line of silvery energy. The other devas launched their specials as they reached their assigned positions.

Zhuqiaomon's surprise lasted no more than a second before it turned to outrage. He screamed in wrath as the attacks tore into him and he staggered under their combined force. He tried to launch his Blazing Helix attack but the wings on his right side wouldn't open to the correct position. He turned his head and snapped at the silvery line that bound his wings together.

Breaking the entangling trail of energy took him long enough to allow the devas to launch fresh attacks, Istaqamon's second Star Scatter streaming up and into the Sovereign's right eyes in an effort to distract him from freeing his wings while Kayamon, with another of her graceful leaps, wove another line of Binding Tail energy around him.

The struggling Sovereign abandoned his attempts to free himself and, instead, unleashed an attack that needed no limbs for guidance. His Phoenix Fire attack jetted from his gaping beak and struck Arisimon dead on, hurling her back against the wall of the chamber with horrific force. The devas watched in dismay as their leader's poleaxe dissolved as it skittered across the chamber's floor and the roiling flames dissipated to reveal a badly burned and battered Kunomon huddled at the base of the wall.

"Nobody told you to stop fighting!" Istaqamon roared at them but they all hesitated except Kayamon, whose jaws sparkled with the rising energy of a Wind Fang attack.

"I will destroy you all for your insolence!" Zhuqiaomon thundered, and then paused in astonishment as Kunomon raised her head.

She was smiling.

As she raised herself up, revealing the metal cage she had sheltered beneath her body, a digivolution vortex swelled around her and within an instant, she stood proudly as Arisimon once more, whole, unharmed, and as powerful as ever.

Zhuqiaomon stammered out his amazement. "You-- how could you--" he was interrupted by Kayamon's Wind Fang attack tearing giant flaming feathers off of his flank and Istaqamon's full-throated laughter.

"That's right," the huge armored coyote howled with glee, "you're _screwed_ buddy!"


	13. Coronation

--o--o--o--

Chapter 13

Coronation

--o--o--o--

Zhuqiaomon didn't go easily. By the time he lay beaten and broken on the floor of his own palace, only two devas besides Kaliskamon and Kayamon were left alive and one had been knocked back to his Rookie form and was barely conscious.

Arisimon stood over Zhuqiaomon, poleaxe raised. "You--" he gasped up at her, "--you have no-- no right-- to do this."

"_You_ had no right to invade Earth," Kaliskamon told him as he limped forward, the patches of color on his coat dull and sluggish.

Arisimon sneered at them both. "Rights? Rights are fantasies! Reality is _power_!" Her Poleaxe slammed into Zhuqiaomon's neck.

The Sovereign erupted into a roiling cloud of data that shocked them all with its volume and strength. The surge of energy that poured into them all immediately returned Elecmon and Kaliskamon to their Ultimate forms. Only Istaqamon had ever experienced downloading anywhere near the amount of energy that flooded them all and it was that experience that allowed him to keep some control of his senses while the rest were lost in an overwhelming rush of ecstatic sensation.

Istaqamon looked hard into the swirling data cloud for something out of the ordinary. Zhuqiaomon had been a Mega, theoretically the same level as Arisimon but much more powerful. There had to be something that made him different-- something that _made_ him a Sovereign. Then he saw it. He forced his shivering legs to take two steps forward and fell to his knees as if overwhelmed by the strength of the data influx. His hand closed on a single, tiny packet of data that was different from all the other uncountable fragments, hiding its strange blue-white glow. It nestled in his palm, hard and vibrating with a strange harmonic that felt like fire and ice at the same time.

He glanced up at Arisimon but her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, her jaw open and trembling, the tip of her poleaxe scraping meaningless graffiti into the floor.

Istaqamon backed away from the rapidly vanishing cloud of data. He knew he couldn't hide an object of such immense power for long and to try and flee would only trigger Arisimon's instant suspicion and, most probably, a very deadly reaction.

He felt a nudge at his hand and looked down to see Kayamon nuzzling his closed fist.

"What _is_ that, father?" she asked innocently.

That made up his mind for him. "You'll see sweetie-- I'm just about to do another monumentally foolish thing."

--o--o--o--

The destruction of Zhuqiaomon might have been rightfully considered the greatest battle ever to have been fought in the Digital Dimension were it not for one that began at nearly the same time and only a small distance away.

The clash of digimon battling for supremacy was something that had happened again and again but the desperate fight of a handful of human children and their partners against a Mega imbued with every strength and ability a Sovereign could grant was something that had never been seen before.

The reunited tamers and their digimon were doing the best they could.

Beelzemon didn't know that the deva who had commanded him and the Sovereign who had created him were dead and it was probable that he wouldn't have cared much if he _had_ known. All he knew was that the ones he had resented for so long were now in his power and he intended to wipe out the memories of every humiliation he had suffered by destroying them all. But even now, one of them insisted on mouthing irritating nonsense at him.

"There's still time," Kyuubimon said, standing bravely before the barrels of his terrible weapon.

Beelzemon sneered at her as he pulled the trigger.

--o--o--o--

Istaqamon strode to where Arisimon was composing herself after managing to absorb the last of Zhuqiaomon's data. Her eyes glowed with energy and her fur crackled beneath her armor. She gave him a curious look as he boldly approached her, but didn't tense or instinctively prepare herself for an attack as she certainly would have only a short time ago. Her Captain stopped only an arm's length away and though he was gazing into her face with a warm smile, he spoke to the three other digimon in the chamber.

"Devas-- attend your Lady," he said in a soft voice that instantly captured their attention.

They all approached and Istaqamon raised his closed fist between himself and Arisimon. Her eyes narrowed just the tiniest bit.

"The Sovereign is dead," Istaqamon continued, opening his hand to reveal the tiny spark of energy he held. "Long live the Sovereign." Arisimon took a sharp breath of surprise and the other digimon murmured their astonishment. Istaqamon grimaced to himself. He'd hoped the devas would have had enough sense of ceremony to echo his proclamation or at least cheer or something. These provincials who'd never been to Earth just had no sense of style, he decided.

He glanced at Arisimon's helm and made a small gesture of his head to indicate she should remove it. He hoped she wouldn't need a long-winded explanation or choose this moment to distrust him but she understood immediately and reached up to lift off the massive piece of armor covering her head. The only sign that she was in the least wary of his intentions was a slight tightening of her hand that still gripped the shaft of her poleaxe.

Istaqamon lifted the tiny crystal of energy with a silent, unbelieving prayer to a long dead scientist, and placed it on Arisimon's forehead.

It blazed with light and sank into her-- and as it did, crimson radiance flared under Istaqamon's hand, now spread across the top of Arisimon's head. His other hand quickly came up to grip the chain of Calumon's cage so that he could hold her against him, preventing her from pulling back from his blazing touch. She screamed and fell to her knees and he crouched with her, forcing more of his carefully focused energy into her body. Arisimon dropped her weapon and helm as he poured data into her with all his strength and her powerful hands clamped down on his shoulders, buckling the metal of his armor beneath them.

The watching devas had no idea what was happening. Metal Greymon took a hesitant step forward, uncertain what, if anything, he could do to help or harm-- and even more uncertain of which of the two blazing figures he wanted to aid. Through the crackling and hissing of surging energy he heard a musical laugh from Kayamon who stood beside him. She looked up at him, smiling, and said, "Isn't this _exciting_?"

A vortex of energy began to form around Arisimon and the powerful flux pushed Istaqamon away from her. In the last instant before he lost contact he twisted the cage's chain with all of his might, snapping it, and Arisimon's claws ripped through his chrome digizoid armor and into his shoulders, as she tried desperately to hold him against her.

Istaqamon was flung away from the transforming Arisimon, sliding across the floor and groaning at the pain in his torn shoulders. Kayamon calmly trotted over to him and healed his wounds with two casual swipes of her tongue.

He winked his thanks to her and he reached out and scooped up Calumon's cage. "Are you okay, creampuff?' The little digimon nodded slowly.

"Okay. You just hang in there for a little bit. We're going to try and get you out of here."

"How are we going to do that?" Kayamon asked him.

"Well," he said thoughtfully as he looked up at the still growing vortex surrounding Arisimon, "that depends on how successful my little upload was. I sure hope it doesn't come down to just grabbing Calumon and running like scared rabbits."

--o--o--o--

Kyuubimon leaped over the handlebars of Beelzemon's massive motorcycle, slamming into him with such force that he was ripped from his seat to tumble across the rocky ground. He staggered to his feet and drew both of his weapons but, incredibly, Kyuubimon still had the strength to launch a Dragon Wheel attack at him that knocked the guns from his hands.

But a single Champion, no matter how strong, could never equal the power of a Mega and Kyuubimon collapsed to the ground in exhaustion as she reformed from her attack.

Beelzemon cursed and clutched at his ribs where Kyuubimon had hit him. He took a few steps to her prostrate form and slammed the spiked toe of his boot into her belly.

From where he watched, something inside Takato turned like a switch and his appalled expression became one of unforgiving rage. "I don't care who he used to be-- he's nothing but a _monster _now!"

Kyuubimon gasped in pain and used what little energy she had left to plead with Beelzemon, trying one last time to save him from himself. "Don't be so blind!"

Beelzemon lifted his long razor claws for a gutting strike. "I said, _SHUT UP!"_ he screamed. An instant before he ripped the life out of her, Leomon lunged forward and caught his arm. Beelzemon turned with the speed of a striking snake and the claws of his other hand tore up through Leomon's unprotected stomach. The huge lion Champion gasped and fell to the ground, bits of data already beginning to separate from the edges of his mortal wound.

Kyuubimon cried out in horror and tried to regain her feet to reach out to Leomon but Beelzemon savagely kicked her in the head until she collapsed again.

Jeri couldn't believe her eyes. It had been all so sudden. It just _couldn't_ be happening. "_Leomon_!" she cried out to her dying partner.

Leomon was a true warrior. He had always known that this was a fate that might await him and had accepted it. But he had been Jeri's partner for so short a time he had never realized what impact his passing might have on another-- another whom he had come to respect and care for. Now he had only seconds left to ease his partner's grief and leave her something of himself.

"Be brave Jeri!" he called out to her, "Part of me will always be with you." He flung out one hand, wincing in pain, and the shining bits of his remaining data flowed in a tight stream from his palm, whisking across the plain and striking Jeri in the chest. As she lost consciousness she heard her partner's last words, muffled as if through a golden fog, "Remember-- you have a lion's heart!"

--o--o--o--

"I am Yasuramon, Sovereign of the South." The huge creature announced to her awestruck audience in a voice of steel, silk, and smoke. She was utterly magnificent. Her form was that of a huge winged fox with a long, luxurious banner of a tail that stretched behind her for nearly double her body's length. Each strand of her fur seemed to be a line of molten metal-- silver, gold and copper, all burning with energy and twining in intricate patterns.

The most important detail, as far as Istaqamon was concerned, was the symbol on her forehead. It was something that had been missing from all of her evolutionary forms since she had left her Kunomon body behind. It was the symbol of balance-- the joining of yin and yang to form a harmonious whole-- the taijitu.

Istaqamon stepped forward and bowed to Yasuramon. It wasn't a deep bow of humility such as a servant might make to a powerful lord, it was almost casual-- an acknowledgment from a respectful peer. Yasuramon's gaze held such power that the others felt compelled to look away from it even though it wasn't focused on them. Kayamon only had eyes for her father and she watched him carefully.

"I have helped you to achieve your _rightful_ place, my Sovereign," Istaqamon declaimed, not able to resist emphasizing the word Arisimon had objected to earlier, "and now, in return for all I have done for you, I ask a favor."

Yasuramon didn't speak immediately but let her gaze continue to fall heavily on Istaqamon. He slid his tongue slightly to one side in his mouth and bit down on it to distract himself from the rising doubt within him. Finally, she spoke.

"Istaqamon," the sound of her voice speaking his name sent shivers down his back. He was glad that his armor hid the rise of his hackles. "Remain here with me," the Sovereign continued. "The rest of you, leave me. Silphymon, go to the South Gate and stand guard."

"I want to stay with my father," Kayamon said.

Istaqamon wondered where she got the courage to defy a creature like Yasuramon. "It's okay, Kayamon, I'll be alright."

As he spoke, Yasuramon's long tail began to move, curling around with the liquid strength of a deep ocean wave until its very tip brushed across the cage that held Calumon. The chrome digizoid bars dissolved away and the tiny digimon looked around with a disbelief that was mirrored in Istaqamon's face.

"Take him with you," Yasuramon said to Kayamon, "take him back to Earth and keep him safe. Go now." The last two words held such power of command that Kayamon made no protest. She let Calumon climb onto her back and left the chamber with only one backward glance at her father. He winked at her with a confidence he didn't feel as the massive doors of the chamber swung shut between them.


	14. Fractures

--o--o--o--

Chapter 14

Fractures

--o--o--o--

"Yasuramon said to take Calumon back to Earth but I've never been there," Kayamon said to Metal Greymon and Silphymon as they made their way out of the Sovereign's castle. "I guess I should find my mother and the humans first but I don't even know where to start looking."

Metal Greymon opened his mouth to speak but Kayamon didn't even pause for breath before continuing. "And, anyway, I want to wait for my father. I don't know why he had to stay with Yatsuramon because we've already got what we wanted, which is this little guy on my back. Did you know he's the power that lets everyone digivolve? I guess nobody knew that before my father figured it out. He's really smart and taught me all about fighting, like when I used my Binding Tail attack on Zhuqiaomon? That was to keep him from being able to maneuver or dodge which was good because even though I could have done more damage with one of my other attacks that kept him from attacking you and the others so much and that's more important in situations where there are multiple attackers. He said that he and Renamon-- she's my mother-- developed that technique. He said that Renamon could move so fast that she--"

Metal Greymon gave up trying to get a word in and plodded alongside the happily chattering Kayamon in silence. Silphymon leaned over to him and whispered, "What's a 'mother'?" Metal Greymon shrugged his titanic shoulders.

--o--o--o--

Yasuramon lay down and folded her wings alongside her body. With her head resting on her forelegs her eyes were just about level with Istaqamon's. It didn't make her seem an iota less intimidating but Istaqamon appreciated the gesture.

"Same gorgeous violet eyes," he remarked. "I'm glad to see that hasn't changed."

It was only half flattery, Yasuramon knew. She could see right through him-- quite literally. Her senses extended through many planes of existence now and she could read subtleties in Istaqamon's energies that had been hidden to her before her transformation. He _did_ consider her to be beautiful as well as imposing. He was nervous and uncertain-- ready to jump in any direction in an instant-- but he wasn't _afraid_ of her. She found that fact to be very intriguing.

"Thanks for letting the little guy go," Istaqamon continued, "that was very generous of you."

"Not at all," Yasuramon said, enjoying the little sparkle of energy that ran up Istaqamon's spine as she spoke. "It was a smart move, not a generous one. He can do nothing more for me, so it will be best if he were out of reach of any potential enemies. Earth is the best place for him."

Istaqamon smiled, "I'm glad you no longer consider the tamers to be your enemies. But-- not that I'm suggesting such a thing-- wouldn't it have been simpler and easier to just kill Calumon? That's what I would have expected of you in an earlier incarnation."

"It can't be done." Yasuramon told him and grinned at the ripple and flare of his aura as he took in the meaning of her words.

"You-- you mean you tired to--" he said, his eyes narrowing.

"No," she said, "not intentionally. I lost my temper while I was learning to control him. That thing inside of him renews his body instantly-- which explains how such a puny and timid creature survived for so long. I think that, with the strength I now possess, I _might_ be able to destroy him and the thing within him but, for some strange reason, I felt that it wouldn't be--" she briefly searched for the exact word, "--_right_ to do so."

Yasuramon lifted her gigantic head off of her forelegs and loomed over her Captain. "And that brings me to the reason for this private little audience, Istaqamon." His core flared and attack energy built up in his hands. His muscles tensed, ready for instant reaction-- but his aura remained free of the pale color of fear. She felt a brief urge to press him, to find out just how far she would need to go to make him cower, but she wanted other information much more urgently.

"What did you _do_ to me?"

"Oh _that_," he said, relaxing just a bit. "It was just an energy transfer-- sort of a coronation gift."

Yasuramon saw that he was actually a bit embarrassed. She recalled the incredible ecstasy that had surged through her from his touch and wondered if that was what he and Renamon had shared so often. She felt a sudden powerful longing to reach out and touch him, which she savagely repressed. "Whatever form I wore, have you ever known me to be a fool? I know there was something _else_ in that meaningless flow of energy; something that you hoped would impose your will on me. Isn't that right?"

Istaqamon stood stiffly upright and gave her a precise bow. "My Sovereign Lady," he said in a formal tone that held a definite tinge of mockery, "you _are_ a fool! Oh yes, you're right about that 'something extra' but you couldn't be more wrong about my intent. What I gave you wasn't a virus or some tricky piece of warped data that I hoped would make you do my bidding. I know that's just how you think-- that every move has a hidden threat, every gesture is a potential attack!" He was pacing up and down now, growing more agitated by the word. "And that's where your foolishness comes in. You're blind to half the world! Maybe it's not your fault-- I can see you've had a miserably hard life-- but you are a _Sovereign_ now! You are secure and powerful and you can afford to open yourself to all that the world has to offer."

Yasuramon stared at him in amazement. "What the hell are you raving about?"

"_Love_, damnit!" he yelled at her, "I gave you my _love_! I had to force it down your damned throat because that's the only way you'd ever let it near you!"

"I-- I don't understand." Yasuramon said slowly. "You love _Renamon_. You said--"

"Yes, I do!" Istaqamon continued in a more moderate tone of voice, "I love her and she's my one and only mate, so don't get any funny ideas, gorgeous! That little zap was a one-time deal. I don't go heels up for every pretty piece of tail that comes along."

Yasuramon stared at him, wide-eyed. He was joking-- doing funny voices-- and beneath it all, he was deadly serious.

"You see-- I love _Rika_, too," he continued, "--when I'm not wanting to _strangle_ her. I love my daughter. And then there's Guilmon-- who could _not_ love that great little guy? What I'm trying to say is that love isn't limited-- and that there's all different kinds of love-- and," he slammed the butt of his lance against the floor for emphasis, "I _do_ love you, damnit!"

Yasuramon was paralyzed with shock. She could _see_ he wasn't lying. Her mind whirled in confusion. Her thoughts were so chaotic that she briefly suspected that Istaqamon _had _uploaded her with some trojan virus that had been triggered by his last words to her.

"But I-- you--" Even in an uncertain stammer her voice was god-like.

"It makes no frikkin' sense?" Istaqamon laughed, "_Tesla's teeth_, don't you think I know that? I ought to hate your guts-- but I don't. I could pretend it was because of your strength and perseverance or maybe your cleverness but those are only reasons to _admire_ you. I can't reason it out because love has nothing to do with reason. That's just the way it is and we'd better get used to it!" And he pounded the floor with his lance once again.

Whatever Yasuramon might have been going to say was interrupted by a terrific rumble as the ground began to shake violently.

Istaqamon glanced at his weapon in surprise. "Don't know my own strength," he muttered.

--o--o--o--

Calumon's sudden yell startled Kayamon who jinked sideways and let him fall to the ground between the two posts of the Great South Gate. He lay there, grimacing, with his forehead mark blazing a red beam up into the sky.

Kayamon looked back and forth between her companions. "Is he supposed to do that by himself?" Without waiting for an answer, she prodded the little digimon with a paw. "Stop that!" she told him.

Surprisingly, he _did_ stop and, after a moment, opened his eyes. "I-- I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself. I _tried _not to! Please don't hurt me."

Kayamon looked at him in puzzlement as if he had been speaking a foreign language. "Well, don't do it again," she told him, "I don't think Yasuramon would like it." She looked closer and sniffed at him. "What _is_ that thing in your head, anyway?" She asked.

Calumon whimpered and tried unsuccessfully to cover his relatively enormous head with his tiny arms. "You can't take it out! You can't! It just _hurts_!"

Kayamon looked up at Metal Greymon. "Do you have any idea what he's talking about?"

Metal Greymon hesitated but when it looked as if Kayamon was actually going to allow him to answer he said, "No-- none at all. But I _do_ know the Sovereign wishes him taken to Earth. It would be best if you did that as soon as possible."

"I guess--" Kayamon said thoughtfully as she looked back down at the unhappy little creature. "If father doesn't come out of the castle by nightfall, I'll head for the Southern Portal. I wish Yasuramon had been able to give us the power to open portals on our own. Maybe she didn't know how-- or d'you think it was because she promised father she wouldn't invade Earth? I still think portal magic would be handy to have because then I could visit Earth whenever I wanted but still come back here to explore because even my father doesn't know everything about the Digital Dimension and it would be such fun to go traveling with him and meet all sorts of new digimon we could fight and of course we would bring my mother along--"

Silphymon and Metal Greymon actually welcomed the interruption caused by the sudden, violent shaking of the ground.

--o--o--o--

"What is it?" Istaqamon asked as he crouched to give his legs the flex needed to ride out the still shaking ground.

Yasuramon was standing, gazing at the wall of the chamber as if she could see through it (which, in fact, she _could_). "Megas" she rumbled. "There's quite a battle going on out there-- and one of them is drawing in a huge amount of energy. It's disrupting the underlying code of the Digital Dimension."

"Two of them? Can you tell who they are?"

Yasuramon's eyes narrowed. "No-- not for certain-- but I _think_ one of them may be your old friend Beelzemon." She turned her gaze down to her suddenly agitated Captain. "That's quite a vocabulary you have. I don't think I've ever heard some of those words before."

"It's _got_ to be the tamers. I have to go to them!" Istaqamon said urgently, "They need me!"

Yasuramon silently studied him.

"Yasuramon, _please_! Look, do you want me to kneel and _beg_ you? Because, if that's what it'll take--"

The huge Sovereign gave a sharp exhalation of breath that might have been distantly related to a laugh. "No play-acting, please. Just go."

"Thank you!" Istaqamon shouted and turned toward the great doors that were already swinging open.

"One last thing," Yasuramon said in a voice that slid over him like molten gold.

"Yes?" He turned back to her as she bent over him, her vast head looming large as she bent down to him. Because her face filled his view he didn't notice her tail moving until its tip brushed against his chest. The flare of energy knocked him backwards and it was a second or so before he could scramble to his feet.

"Wha--" he gasped, "I--" his armor glinted with new shapes; symbols and trim that bore curious runes in black digizoid metal.

"You may have some need of that," Yasuramon said.

Istaqamon groped for the right thing to say but Yasuramon was already turning away from him and spreading her wings to fly.

--o--o--o--

"What do you think it is?" Metal Greymon asked Silphymon as they strained to make out any details in the cloud of dust that billowed up on the distant horizon. Flares of bright energy sparkled there from time to time. "Big fight of some kind?"

"Nothing to do with us," Silphimon replied, shrugging, "Not unless the winner of that fight wants to pass through this gate!" Evidently, he was taking his assigned responsibility quite seriously.

Both of the devas suddenly realized that Kayamon hadn't chimed in with her opinion and they turned to look at her. She was gone. Calumon sat alone in the dust, blinking up at them.

"Where'd she go?" Silphymon asked the little digimon.

Calumon raised a tiny hand and pointed at the distant conflict. Looking back, the two devas could just make out a running figure, blurred with speed, racing toward the battle.

"Yasuramon's not going to like this," Metal Greymon rumbled

"Yes," Silphymon agreed, "If this little thing is the key to digivolving, leaving it alone could be a threat to our Sovereign. Any digimon who possessed it could become powerful enough to--" He trailed off slowly and glanced at Metal Greymon who was wearing a puzzled look that was just giving way to realization.

Both devas lunged for Calumon at the same time.


	15. Reunion

-o--o--o--

Chapter 15

Reunion

--o--o--o--

Takato never knew how close he came to destroying the Digital Dimension and all of his friends. If Guilmon, in his monstrous Mega form of Megidramon, had been able to resist Beelzemon for another minute, the energy he was draining out of the dimension's basic structure would have caused a cascading failure of all the matter imitation routines, breaking everything and everyone into disassociated bits of data. The watching tamers and their digimon stared in shock and anguish as the great dragon collapsed, not knowing how near he had brought them to annihilation.

None of them were in any condition to handle even an ordinary fight after the battering they had received from the superweapon that Beelzemon had become and Rika groaned aloud as she noticed the approach of another digimon.

"I just hope it's Coyomon," she said wearily as she unclipped her digivice from her belt.

Renamon tried to take up a fighting stance in front of her tamer but stumbled and fell to one knee. "I've failed you," she said in a miserable voice. "I'm supposed to protect you and I can't even stand."

"You haven't failed anything," Rika told her as the info disk blinked on. "Your job is to rest now."

"Now what?" Kazu had noticed the approaching digimon with dismay.

"Kayamon," Rika read from her digivice, "Ultimate level-- data type-- specials are--" She broke off suddenly. The strange digimon had arrived.

"Hi!" Kayamon cried out to the group as she skidded to a stop in a cloud of dust. "What's going on? Who's fighting over there? Is it over? Did I miss it?" She noticed what Rika was holding. "Hey! That's a _digivice_, isn't it? Oh, wow! That means you're a human! I've never met a human before. Do you have any special attacks? Is this your partner digimon? She looks like-- like-- oh." Kayamon trailed off as she gazed at the battered and exhausted Renamon. She ducked her head nervously and shifted her balance as if to partially hide herself behind Rika. Renamon was staring at her with an icy-blue intensity undiminished by her injured state.

"You-- you're--" Kayamon began hesitantly, and then summoned up enough courage to ask in a soft little voice, "Are you my mother?" Her question wasn't quiet enough that all the rest of the group didn't hear her, though. There were several gasps from the crowd and Kazu actually burst out laughing.

"Yes," Renamon said, stilling the watchers instantly, "I think I _am_."

Everyone tried to speak at once and Kayamon actually flinched at the amount of unexpected noise.

"Quiet!" Rika shouted angrily, "BE QUIET!" The expression on her face was so fierce that the commotion died without protest. Rika turned to the now silent and uncertain Kayamon. "Okay-- you can explain all that later. Right now I want to know where Coyomon is."

"Oh," said Kayamon, happy to have a subject she was comfortable with, "he's talking with the Sovereign."

"Talking?" Rika asked incredulously. "With _Zhuqiaomon?"_

"Oh, no!" Kayamon grinned, "not Zhuqiaomon! We killed _him!_ I mean the _new_ Sovereign, Yasuramon." The commotion was twice as loud this time and it took several moments for everyone to calm down.

"I think she'll be a better Sovereign," Kayamon tried to reassure the group, misinterpreting their reactions, "She doesn't want to invade your world or anything like that. She even gave us Calumon back. He's a really strange little digimon, he can't even fight and he's got this glowy thingy in his head--"

"Wait, wait!" Rika interrupted her. "The Sovereign gave you Calumon? Where is he now?"

"He's--" Kayamon's eyes went very wide. "Oh-- I-- _oops_."

"'Oops'?" Rika asked, raising an eyebrow.

Renamon chuckled weakly, "Oh yes-- she's Coyomon's child, alright."

--o--o--o--

The heads of Metal Greymon and Silphymon slammed together with terrific force. It wasn't something either of them had planned. They had been so wrapped up in their tug-o-war with the long-suffering Calumon that they hadn't noticed Istaqamon's approach. Istaqamon had reached out and banged their skulls together by way of a gentle admonishment. Metal Greymon staggered backwards, releasing his grip on Calumon. The curving metal horn on his head armor was bent to one side. Silphymon's helmet was considerably lighter than Metal Greymon's and he collapsed in a heap, moaning.

Istaqamon scooped up the whimpering Calumon and tucked him in the crook of an elbow. "It's okay, creampuff, nobody's going to hurt you any more."

"Istaqamon--" Metal Greymon began.

"That's _Captain_ Istaqamon to you, soldier!" The armored coyote barked out in his best imitation of a movie general.

"Huh?"

"Oh for--" Istaqamon sighed, "_Try_ to get into the spirit of things, will you?"

Metal Greymon just looked bewildered for a second and then went on. "We can use Calumon to digivolve! We all could be Sovereigns, too!"

"So," Istaqamon smirked, "you and Silphymon were just arguing about who was going to go first?"

"Uh--"

"Yeah. That's what I thought-- didn't trust each other, did you?" Istaqamon shook his head. "Suffering Tesla! If Calumon stays another week in the Digital Dimension, half the digimon are going to kill each other off over who gets to abuse him next. No, I think I'd better remove this temptation from reach. You guys were Rookies yesterday and now you're Ultimate devas. Be satisfied with that."

Silphymon staggered to his feet and exchanged looks with Metal Greymon. Istaqamon sighed again. "No, the two of you _can't_ take me, so don't be stupid. You're lucky it _was_ me who caught you-- Yasuramon isn't exactly the forgiving type."

There were a few more traded glances and Metal Greymon finally said, "Yes-- _Captain_." Silphymon nodded and then winced.

"Now-- I assume, from the tracks, that my impulsive daughter went in _that_ direction?" Istaqamon asked, pointing at the dissipating dust cloud on the horizon.

Silphymon started to nod again and then stopped and said, "Yes," in a sullen tone.

"Good!" Istaqamon said cheerfully. "You boys hold down the fort while I go off and save the day."

--o--o--o--

"Hey," Kenta shouted, "Something's happening over there!" The group turned to see the shining figure of Galantmon rise from the desert floor to confront Beelzemon.

Rika stared at her digivice in puzzlement. "Another Mega form? What the heck is Takato doing? Not that I'm complaining if it means we still have a chance to beat Beelzemon."

"I can help!" chirped Kayamon, and then turned to Renamon. "Can we fight together, mother? I'd like that!"

Renamon shook her head sadly, "I'm too weak. I--"

"Oh that's okay! I've got plenty of energy!" She reached out and tapped Renamon on the chest with a paw and there was a brilliant flash of light. Renamon leaped to her feet with a gasp of surprise, her body tingling with strength.

Rika wasn't slow on the uptake. An instant after she realized Renamon was at her full fighting strength again she swiped a blue card through her digivice. "Go get 'im!" she cried out as Kyuubimon emerged from the vortex.

Mother and daughter bounded away toward the battling Megas.

"Um--," Henry hesitantly began as the two digimon raced away, "Rika, do you want to explain how Renamon's got a _daughter _all of a sudden?"

"It's simple, dummy!" Kazu interrupted him, laughing, "Rika's partners have been 'Doin' the Nasty'!" He turned to Rika, grinning. "How do digimon do it, Rika? Did you watch them when--"

Rika whirled around and punched Kazu in the stomach. It was a good, solid hit that would have been pretty painful even if her fist _hadn't_ been blazing with blue ghost fire. As it was, Kazu flew backwards for several meters and dropped like a stone, moaning. Guardromon instantly stepped between them, the ports of his shoulder-mounted rocket launchers flipping open. Rika's fists and feet flared even brighter and it looked for a second like she was actually going to take on Kazu's digimon by herself.

"Rika." Henry said quietly.

Rika stepped back and the ghost fire flickered out. "Get him out of my sight," she told Guardromon coldly and turned her back on him.

"Holy Cow!" Terriermon said from where he lay in Henry's arms, "You got any _other_ surprises for us, Rika?"

Rika had her back to Henry and Terriermon, watching the renewed fight across the shattered plain and they only just caught the reply she muttered under her breath: "I sure _hope_ not."

--o--o--o--

Istaqamon pounded across the plain, jumping the wide rents that had opened up in its surface and occasionally detouring around the ones too wide to jump. He cursed his relatively slow pace but wasn't willing to loose all his Ultimate strength just to revert to his much faster Rookie body.

"Hey, creampuff," he said to Calumon as he ran, "Do you think I'd be faster as a Mega-- maybe with wings or jet engines or something? Hint, hint!"

There was no answer. Istaqamon looked down and saw that the tiny digimon in his arms was curled up and deeply asleep.

"Oh well," he sighed, "You've earned some rest, little guy. I guess I'll just have to make do."

--o--o--o--

Kayamon and Kyuubimon ran side-by-side, leaping the fissures and jagged rubble of the mangled ground with nimble grace. Ahead they could see Beelzemon using his monstrous bike's speed to dodge Galantmon's attacks.

"We need to pin him down so Galantmon can get a good, solid hit," Kyuubimon called out to her daughter.

"Okay!" Kayamon replied, "Do you know 'Make-a-Wish'"?

Kyuubimon smiled. "I certainly _do!_ I'm happy to learn your father hasn't neglected your education!"

The pair angled toward the spot Beelzemon was going to be in a few seconds and leaped, simultaneously rotating out of phase. As the roaring black bike passed underneath them they dropped, both in space and out of phase, each clamping their jaws down on one of Beelzemon's wrists and letting their combined weight tear him off of his motorcycle.

The three of them skidded across the cracked earth for a few seconds and then Kayamon and Kyuubimon used all of the power of their legs to back away from each other, hauling Beelzemon's arms out to either side. He cursed and struggled violently against the strength that would have torn many a lesser digimon in two. The pair held him immobile and outstretched for long seconds until he summoned the vast reserves of his Sovereign-given power and brought his fists together violently-- intending to smash his tormentors into each other, which was the exact instant, of course, that they released his wrists.

Beelzemon's fists cracked together with all the strength he had mustered and he howled in pain, losing more precious seconds of reaction time. When he recovered and looked up, Galantmon was standing over him, the point of his shining lance only a fraction of a second away from impact.

The power released by Galantmon's Lightning Joust attack blasted a crater into the plain and pelted the mother-daughter team with fragments of rock as they darted away, trying to head off Beelzemon's demonic motorcycle which was circling back to aid its master.

Kayamon was in the lead and Kyuubimon called out to her, "Alley-Oop?" trusting that Coyomon would have instructed his daughter in this particular strategy. It was one of his favorites.

"Yay! Fun!" Kayamon sung out, which Kyuubimon took for a yes.

Kyuubimon didn't expect the Binding Tail attack but it did the job. The bright line of energy from Kayamon's tail whipped around one of the grips of the bike's handlebar and twisted it to one side, causing the bike's front wheel to pop sideways and dig violently into the earth. The speed and weight of the bike flipped it up and over, into the air and out of control. Kyuubimon's Dragon Wheel attack met it from directly below and it fragmented into a glittering fountain of twisted metal and burning oil and tires.

Kayamon whirled and danced with joy. "Oh, mother! That was so much fun!"

Kyuubimon couldn't help but smile. "I'm glad you enjoyed it, but the fight's not over yet."

But she was wrong. Just then, the energy pulse of the edge of the Shield of the Just attack knocked them off their feet. They leaped up again to see the victorious Galantmon standing over Beelzemon's helpless form. It _was_ over. They had won.

--o--o--o--

A few minutes later, Istaqamon was relieved to finally see the tamers as he leaped a small ridge of broken rock but he was also bitterly disappointed to find that there was no longer any fighting going on. He waved as members of the group called out to him and trotted up to them, motioning to them to lower their voices and pointing to the sleeping Calumon in his arms.

He knelt and handed Calumon to Takato, then turned and gave a wide smile to his tamer, mate, and daughter. "I'm so glad to see all of you beautiful ladies together at last," he said quietly as Takato carried Calumon away. Then he noticed the subdued mood of the group, the absence of Leomon, and the addition of Susie (Henry's little sister) and a strange digimon that looked a lot like Terriermon.

"Uh--" he said, as his smile faltered a bit, "--did I miss something?"

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

**Author's Notes:**

**As always, reviews are welcome.**

**Updated and added pictures. Links can be found on my bio page.**

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**


	16. Fallout

--o--o--o--

Chapter 16

Fallout

--o--o--o--

Rika immediately insisted that Istaqamon fill her in on everything that had happened to him since they had parted.

"First, just tell me how _Susie_ managed to end up here!" he asked her.

"Who's the tamer and who's the digimon here?" she said pointedly.

Istaqamon threw up his hands and sighed dramatically. "Fine! If you're going to pull the _tamer_ card on me-- but let's start walking, okay? I'd like to get you guys somewhere safer than this place. It's going to be night soon and it'll take us a couple of days to walk to the Southern Portal, so we might as well cover as much ground as possible."

The group spent a few moments arraigning themselves. Kayamon went to each injured digimon and gave them a burst of healing energy while Istaqamon picked up Susie, Lopmon and Calumon, who was still sleeping, and settled them in his arms. Kazu and Kenta rode on Guardromon's shoulders and lingered at the rear of the group, Kazu wearing a grim expression. Rika rode on Kyuubimon's back with Jeri sitting behind her.

"Okay," Istaqamon said when they began to make their way south, "I guess I'd better explain about Kayamon first. She hatched a few days ago-- sort of--"

"If Rika isn't going to punch me for asking," Terriermon interjected, "I'd like to know how you-- I mean she-- ah, you know what I mean! I didn't think digimon could--"

"_Terriermon!_" Henry said in a shocked voice.

Istaqamon made a gesture with his head to indicate Henry's little sister who was listening eagerly, though without a clue as to what they were talking about. "Later, pal," he said and winked. "I'll give you all the gruesome details."

"You _won't_. Not if you know what's good for you." Kyuubimon put in.

Istaqamon cleared his throat. "In _general_ terms, of course." He said to Terriermon. "Moving on--" And he told them all the story of how he tracked down Kunomon and how his daughter had barely survived her hatching.

"Mega or not, I'd like to get my hands on that miserable Kunomon or Arisimon or whatever she's called now!" Rika growled. "How did this new Sovereign get Calumon away from her, anyway?"

"Ah--" Istaqamon said, as he waved Kayamon to silence, "that's the _next_ thing I need to explain. You see-- um, look-- I know you're not going to like this but try not to over-react, okay?"

Kyuubimon stopped walking and both she and Rika turned to look hard at him. "What did you do now?" Rika asked, frowning.

He told them.

"Kunomon? _Kunomon_ is the new Sovereign?" Rika yelled at him. "And you _helped_ her to take over? Are you completely _INSANE_?"

"Funny--" he mumbled, "--she asked me the same thing."

Kyuubimon didn't say anything but was giving him a cold, hard stare. The rest of the group, unfamiliar with the renamon who had been Chatsuramon's spy, just waited in uncertain silence.

"Look, it's not as bad as it sounds--" Istaqamon began.

"This is the same Kunomon who you once told me was 'just like Renamon except she's a _ruthless psychopath'_?"

Istaqamon nodded, "and a bit shorter," he added.

"You stupid, brainless coyote!" Rika started in again, "How could you--"

There was a sudden blur of movement and Kayamon was facing Rika, her hackles raised in sharp spikes and her emerald eyes blazing. All traces of lightness and playfulness were gone from her voice and her attitude. "Don't you _dare_ talk to my father like that," she growled, wisps of green energy beginning to form around her bared fangs.

Kyuubimon instantly raised her head and snarled at her daughter, the ghost fire of her paws and tails flaring brilliantly.

The two beast digimon were so intent on their sudden confrontation that Istaqamon's fiery lance slamming into the ground between them came as a complete surprise to both. "NO!" he bellowed, "Stop this right _now_! Kayamon, it's all right-- humans get some funny ideas into their heads sometimes and we have to make allowances. You could help me a lot right now if you would go ahead and scout out an easy route off this plain. Remember, humans can't easily cross any gaps wider than this:" he stretched out his thumb and forefinger to show her.

Kayamon hesitated, looking between her father and mother and then nodded. As she walked away she gave one last look over her shoulder and said quietly, "I don't think I like humans much."

"Rika, please," Takato said as he and Guilmon walked over to her, "Let's just hear the rest of the story before we try and kill each other, okay?"

"Fine." Rika snapped. "Kyuubimon, let's go!"

They began walking again. Nobody noticed that Jeri was silently weeping.

--o--o--o--

Yasuramon flew high above her realm, enjoying her new strength and freedom. Such a short time ago she had been a nearly helpless slave and now she ruled a quarter of all the Digital World. As she flew, she let all her long-cherished fantasies of revenge slip out of her mind. She had achieved the most important and seemingly impossible one-- and the others-- the others were unimportant now-- beneath her.

She would seek out the other Sovereigns. They surely had felt the change-- so much energy had been unleashed-- and would be curious at the very least. She would reassure them-- show them that she was a strong and worthy ruler.

She felt a bit of curiosity as she turned in a broad, sweeping arc through the sky and headed toward Azulongmon's realm. The battle of the Megas had ended a while ago and she wondered who the victor had been and if Istaqamon had taken a part in it. He was just foolish enough to poke his snout into a battle far above his capabilities and that thought caused her a brief moment of concern but she also knew how lucky he was and with the extra armor she had given him, he would, no doubt, come out of it well enough.

He would not return to her-- she resigned herself to that. He was too tied to the human world. Yasuramon opened her senses and felt the ripple and flow of the six primary levels and the newer worlds beyond. Such a vast and wonderful realm was hers to command and it seemed a shame, somehow, that she had no one to share it with.

--o--o--o--

"Why didn't you keep that gem?" Kyuubimon asked Istaqamon when he had finished giving them all the details of the Digital Dimension's first _coup d'etat_. "You could have made yourself Sovereign."

"You're kidding, right?" he laughed. "_Me_, in charge of this place? Despite the fun I had playing Captain of the Devas, I'm just not the sort to fit into a rigid structure, even if I'm at the top. The place would be in utter chaos inside of a month. Besides--" he smiled at Kyuubimon and winked, "--I want to go home with _you_, gorgeous."

"So, you think Yasuramon will keep her word?" Takato quickly asked to cover his embarrassment.

"I'm pretty sure she will," Istaqamon nodded. "I think she wants security more than anything else, and invading Earth would be a big risk."

"And if you're wrong?" asked Rika.

He shrugged. "We're no worse off than before-- no, actually, we're in a _better_ position. We have Calumon back and you've got a partner who knows from first-hand experience exactly how to go about killing a Sovereign." He looked down at her, "That's assuming you still want a 'stupid, brainless coyote' as a partner."

"Hmph," Rika snorted, "Sorry about that."

"No problem."

"It might be for Kayamon," Rika said thoughtfully, "What do you plan on doing with her? I can tell you right now, I'm not interested in a _third_ partner."

"Somehow, I think planning in regards to Kayamon will be a dynamic situation."

"Is that a fancy way of saying you don't know?"

"Pretty much," he sighed. "Now it's your turn-- what happened to you guys after I left? You'd better just give it to me as it happened to avoid confusion."

They took turns filling him in, Henry and Takato telling their story first. Istaqamon questioned them closely about their meeting with Shibumi, particularly about the role of the digignomes in creating digimon. "There's so much we don't know about this place," he grumbled.

Rika took up the story of her group's accidental trip to the Gekomon's forest. She hurried over the part about Leomon delivering the final blow that defeated Orochimon and Istaqamon looked down at Jeri, who kept her face turned away from everyone. He understood the Champion's absence, if not the details. He stopped himself from asking the question that automatically sprang into his mind and let Rika continue.

Kazu chimed in when she got to the part about Guardromon and the sake. "Hey! It was full of those energy balls! They're what made Orochimon so hard to defeat. It was only logical that they would do some good for Guardromon!"

Istaqamon nodded. "Makes sense," he admitted, "and you had no reason to believe that a machine digimon _could_ get drunk."

"I'm telling you-- huh?" Kazu suddenly realized that Istaqamon was _agreeing_ with him. "Yeah-- right. I thought it all out."

"And it worked out just fine in the end! That's all that matters."

There were a couple of coughs and throat-clearings from others in the group but Henry had his hand firmly clasped over Terriermon's mouth and none of the rest spoke up, so Rika continued the story. Kayamon came and went a few times, correcting the group's course to avoid some of the larger chasms. She spoke only to her father and gave just the necessary details of her directions. She avoided looking at any of the others except for a few wistful glances at Kyuubimon.

"She said _what?_" Istaqamon asked when Rika got to the confrontation with Yinmon. "Oh, man! She was really trying to rattle you, I guess."

"Her lies weren't worth the breath she wasted on them," Kyuubimon said. "It was when she hit Rika that I--"

"She attacked Rika?" Istaqamon gasped, his face going dark with rage. "If I'd have known that, she'd be a drifting cloud of data now instead of a Sovereign!"

Rika grinned. "Well, it worked out in the end. Isn't that what matters?"

Istaqamon leaned down to her, his enormous armored head blocking out the light from the sky. Rika's smile didn't falter at all-- in fact, it grew a bit. "You," the giant digimon growled at her, "are a very nasty customer, Ms. Nonaka, flinging my own words back at me! I don't know _why_ I like you so much."

Then Susie told the story of her trip to the Digital World and how she acquired her partner. It was a bit confused, as might be expected from such a young child. Istaqamon looked around at the others. "Am I understanding her right? This," he pointed to Lopmon, "used to be a _deva_? The one that guarded the South Gate?"

"Yep," Henry confirmed his sister's story. "Incredible, huh?"

"I'll say." Istaqamon tactfully refrained from mentioning that the attack on the Sovereign's palace had gone much smoother than it might have because of her absence from her post. He reflected again on the unbelievable strength of the tamer-partner bond.

When they got to the battle with Beelzemon nobody wanted to speak first.

"Look," said Istaqamon, guessing at what might be the problem, "we're all pretty tired, so why don't we wait until we find a good place to sleep for the night and then whoever shares guard duty with me can give me the story." He knew exactly who he was going to pick for that job.

They all agreed to that and soon came to the edge of the shattered plain. Istaqamon left his passengers with the group and went ahead with his daughter, saying he'd find them a good, sheltered place to spend the night.

"Are you alright?" he asked Kayamon as soon as they were a good long distance from the others.

She didn't say anything for a moment and then stopped with her head hanging down. "My mother-- she-- she wouldn't _really_ have attacked me, would she?"

Istaqamon sat down beside her and hugged her with a massive arm across her back. "Oh, sweetie! Don't take it so hard. The deepest instinct that a partnered digimon has is to protect their tamer. It's not personal and it's not something a digimon can really control."

"But you're Rika's partner, too and _you_ didn't get mad at me."

"Uh-- yeah-- well, I'm sort of a special case-- and I _did_ stop it from going any further. Nobody got hurt."

Kayamon looked up at him, not understanding.

"I _do_ feel the instinct to protect her but-- aw hell, who am I kidding? It's pretty complex and I really don't understand it all myself." He shook his head. "All I know is that your mother loves you. How could she not? The tamer thing is just the way we're wired. Hell, Renamon even kicked the crap out of _me_ for bad-mouthing Rika one time-- we got over it, no problem."

"Really?"

"Honest and for true!"

Kayamon gave him a wan little smile. "I want to hear _that_ story."

Istaqamon laughed as he stood up. "Okay! Let's find a campsite and I'll give you the details as we go!" He changed his voice to a hollow, ominous rumble. "Once upon a time, there was a beautiful and noble digimon named Renamon who was enslaved by an evil and rude little human brat who was called the Digimon Queen. One day, a devilishly handsome and clever coyote came along--"

Kayamon giggled. "Are you making fun of me?"

"No, I'm making fun of the situation." he grinned. "But just wait-- I _will_. Sooner or later, I make fun of _everybody._"

--o--o--o--

Rika refused to let Kyuubimon join Istaqamon on guard duty.

"What's the problem, Rika?" Istaqamon growled. "We have a lot of catching up to do."

"Maybe you should just concentrate on the 'guarding' part of guard duty and catch up some other time." His tamer snapped.

Istaqamon had no idea what was going on in Rika's head but it was clear she was both determined and angry and he knew she wouldn't budge without a full-blown fight-- something he was in no mood for at the moment. He looked around at the rest of the group and was reminded that, for all their courage and perseverance, the humans were only children, after all. Henry was the only one who didn't seem unsettled by the situation and so Istaqamon turned to him. "Henry, do you want to join me? I need somebody _sensible_ to talk to. You can bring Terriermon, too."

Rika snorted angrily at that little jab but he ignored her.

"Hey!" said Terriermon. "Are you saying I'm not sensible?"

"Naw-- I'm _implying_ it. There's a difference."

--o--o--o--

Kayamon circled the camp, keeping well out of sight of the group. She had wanted to talk with her mother but she always had her tamer close by her side and Kayamon still didn't want to approach the girl, let alone have a conversation with Kyuubimon while she listened in. Her father had told her that Rika was a good tamer and not at all bad (as humans went) but it was hard for her to forget the rude and untrue things Rika had shouted at him.

She decided she would give the girl another chance because her father wanted her to but privately thought it would be much easier just to delete her. Her mother would get over it, she was sure.

--o--o--o--

Henry's eyes went wide and he stammered to a stop. If Istaqamon had bellowed with rage, it would have been less frightening than his sudden ferocious silence.

"He did _what_?" the giant digimon hissed through his dagger-like teeth.

"Momentai, big guy!" Terriemon said. "She's fine. Leomon stopped him."

"She was helpless and Beelzemon was going to gut her like a fish-- after all the times she tolerated his crap and even stood up for him?" Istaqamon's voice was still quiet but it was trembling with rage. "She _saved_ his worthless hide from Indramon and she was still trying to save him from himself when he went to destroy her like-- like she was _nothing_! Oh, Tesla, I _wish_ I had been there to kill him myself! I would have made it last--"

"He's not dead," Terriermon said before Henry could stop him.

"Wait," Henry said desperately, "you need to know the rest of it. "He killed Leomon but Jeri didn't want--" But he could see Istaqamon wasn't listening.

The massive armor plates of chrome digizoid clanked together as Istaqamon stood and the black runes upon them began to blaze with an eerie violet light. Streams of that light flowed down his arm and swirled around the blazing lance in his hand. "Where is he now?"

Henry shrank away from the burning hatred in Iataqamon's voice and Terriermon stepped in front of his tamer, instinctively trying to protect him. "Please!" Henry begged. "There's no need for more killing! We can just go back home--"

"WHERE?" Istaqamon roared.

Terriermon pointed to the East. "He went in that direction. Toward the mountains," he said hurriedly.

Istaqamon didn't hesitate for an instant but turned and leaped down the cliff in one motion, racing away in the darkness.

"Damnit, Terriermon!" Henry cried.

"I'm sorry, Henry," the little digimon said, "I really, really am. I didn't know he'd take it like that."

"I just want to get out of this place!" Henry dropped to the ground and put his face in his hands. "I want to get Susie home again where she'll be safe and now--"

"We should go tell the others!" Terriermon suggested.

"Huh?" Henry thought about it for a moment. "No, it'll just upset them. Go tell Rika. Do it quietly and don't let anybody else know if you can help it. Maybe Kyuubimon can catch up to him and talk some sense into him."

Terriermon scampered back toward the fire, thinking that Istaqamon didn't much care what was sensible at the best of times. Kyuubimon was going to have her work cut out for her.


	17. Understanding

--o--o--o--

Chapter 17

Understanding

--o--o--o--

"I don't understand," Kyuubimon said to her tamer as they sat by the fire at the mouth of the shallow cave where the other members of the team were sleeping. "It's certainly a private matter between Coyomon and I, and to be discreet is understandable, but why try to pretend it doesn't happen?"

"It's embarrassing," Rika muttered.

Kyuubimon sighed. "Just when I think I'm beginning to understand you--" She stopped and lifted her head. "Terriermon's coming."

The small digimon slowed down as he approached the pair, glancing toward the cave to see if anyone else was awake. Rika didn't fail to notice this. "What's wrong?" She asked him.

Terriermon gave her a sickly grin. "Well-- Henry and I were telling Istaqamon about the fight with Beelzemon-- and when we got to the part where he nearly killed Kyuubimon-- uhm-- well-- Istaqamon freaked out a bit." He winced a bit at the glares he got from them but hurried on, wanting to get it over with, "and I when I told him Beelzemon wasn't dead, he-- well-- he sorta took off. I think he's going after him."

"Oh great," Rika snarled, "just when we need to stick together and concentrate on getting out of this miserable place, that flea-bag decides to take off on us!" She unclipped one of the digivices from her belt and thumbed it on. "Yeah-- there he is-- almost out of range, now."

Kyuubimon glanced at the direction locator and then turned to leap out into the darkness in pursuit of her mate.

"Oh no you don't!" Rika said, "I'm not going to loose _both_ of my partners in one night!"

"Rika," Kyuubimon said, urgently, "don't you understand? If he finds Beelzemon, one of them is going to die!"

"'One of them'? What an odd way to put it," came a voice from the darkness. The three at the fire turned to see Kayamon's eyes glowing with reflected firelight as she cautiously approached them. "Don't you think father will win?" She sat and neatly curled her tail over her forepaws.

"Beelzemon was badly hurt and he's very weak now but he--" Kyuubimon began.

"Or would you be upset even if father _did_ win?" her daughter continued.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

"I'm just trying to understand," Kayamon said quietly. "Things were so simple until I met humans. They seem to complicate everything."

"Hey," Rika said, "I'm standing right here, you--"

"_Hush!"_ Kyuubimon said sharply to Rika, who blinked in surprise but stopped talking. The kitsune turned back to her daughter. "Please go and find your father. Tell him I said to come back right away. I don't want him to harm Beelzemon."

Kayamon looked back and forth between tamer and digimon and then stood. "I don't understand why not, but I will tell him what you said." She raced off into the night.

"I gotta tell you," Terriermon said, "I'm not too sure why we shouldn't let Istaqamon finish him off, either. We don't have to tell Jeri or--" He looked up and saw the expression on Kyuubimon's face. "Oookay-- I'll be getting back to guard duty now."

--o--o--o--

Yasuramon watched the approach of Azulongmon with some doubt. He was truly enormous-- a degree of magnitude bigger than she was-- but size had little to do with relative power where digimon were concerned. No, what bothered her was the roiling lighting storm that he wore like a cloak as he flew. It would seem to indicate that he was very, very upset.

Behind him, on the distant horizon, she could make out a red glow that shimmered with strange energies unknown to her. That too, was worrying. But worst of all was what lay beyond the mysterious red presence. Beyond it was-- _nothing_.

--o--o--o--

Beelzemon stumbled across the dark dessert, barely strong enough to lift his boots from the sand. He had no idea where he was going but he had started walking and there hadn't seemed to be any good reason to stop. He wondered how everything had gone so wrong. He had acquired power beyond his wildest dreams-- and it had brought him nothing but grief.

He sensed the approaching digimon and turned, relieved to have an excuse to end his weary plodding. The ripple of violet light that played across the armor of the running figure gave him some idea of its strength and he felt almost relieved. He wasn't going to have to suffer his crushing despair for much longer, it seemed.

--o--o--o--

"Stop pacing," Rika said to Kyuubimon. "You're driving me nuts."

"I wish you would have let me go," Kyuubimon said as she forced herself to sit. "I don't know for sure what Kayamon will say to him or if he will understand how much I want him to come back.'

"I don't want to let you go," Rika said. "I-- I need you."

Kyuubimon looked carefully at her partner. There had been a very odd tone in her voice. "I'm sure you would be safe enough while I was gone. With Guilmon's new ability to bio-merge with Takato they could--"

"That's not what I'm talking about." Rika said, staring into the fire. "I don't _care_ about that."

"I don't understand, Rika," Kyuubimon said quietly, "But you're my tamer and I will abide by your wishes. I want to do more than protect you-- I want to make you happy. I know you don't care to hear it, but I _do_ love you--"

Rika flung herself at Kyuubimon and buried her face in the thick, white mane, sobbing, "I love you, too! I love you and I don't want to lose you! Not like Leomon-- not to Coyomon-- I-- I--"

Kyuubimon stroked Rika's back with her muzzle and made soft, comforting sounds. "If you hold me in your heart, there is no way you _can_ lose me, Rika."

--o--o--o--

Beelzemon looked up at the massive Ultimate, not really caring who he was or why he was intent on attacking him but the glowing runes on the armor drew his eyes and he read them almost reflexively. Among the other powers he had been given by Zhuqiaomon was the knowledge of the ancient digirunes and he'd never had the chance to use that ability before.

He had only finished the first line when he began to laugh.

"Hahaha! It's dog-boy!" he howled with glee as he finished deciphering the writing. "He's all digivolved and has a new master!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Istaqamon frowned at him.

"You mean you don't know?" Beelzemon fell to his knees and clutched his sides, laughing uncontrollably.

Istaqamon looked down at himself, not understanding. Impmon had always been unpredictable and unstable. Had his defeat driven him insane? Beelzemon had been looking at the runes. The ones Yasuramon had placed on his armor as a parting gift.

Yasuramon.

Rika had often snidely compared Coyomon to a coyote that they had seen in some cartoons on DVD that Takato had shown them one afternoon. It was only because she knew it annoyed him: If there had been any truth to the accusation, a lit lightbulb would have appeared over his head in that instant.

"Oh, frikkin' _Tesla!"_ Istaqamon shouted. "What does it say?"

Beelzemon lifted his head but was unable to speak. He fell on his back and just pointed at the decorated breastplate, gasping and convulsing with laughter.

"Tell me!" Istaqamon roared.

"Or-- or what?" Beelzemon gasped out between guffaws. "You'll _kill_ me? Isn't that-- what you were-- were going to do-- anyway?"

Istaqamon blew the top off of the nearest mesa with a Fire Vortex attack.

"Okay-- okay, I'll tell you," Beelzemon chuckled. "But only because I want to see the look on your face!" It took a heroic effort but Beelzemon got it out all in one go: "_'Hi, my name is Coyomon. I'm friendly but not very bright. If found, please return me to Yasuramon, Sovereign of the South. (small reward)_'"

The expression on Istaqamon's face was everything Beelzemon had hoped for.

--o--o--o--

Kayamon cleared the jagged ridge in one graceful leap and saw her father in the distance. He was bending over a dark form that was lying on the ground. She didn't feel much distress at being too late to stop him. She thought it was an incredibly foolish thing to want to spare a powerful enemy in the first place.

Her mother was so strange. Such a good fighter and just as beautiful as her father had always told her but she had these odd _quirks_-- defending that weird human child and now, misplaced--compassion? Was that the right word?

She mentally shrugged. No matter. He father would tell her what to do. He always knew the right-- Her thoughts were interrupted by the brilliant flash in front of her as Istaqamon and the prostrate Beelzemon disappeared in a massive eruption of light and energy. She skidded to a stop and tried to blink the after-images from her vision. When she could see again everything had changed.

--o--o--o--

Rika was curled up against Kyuubimon's flank, half dozing when Kayamon came racing back into camp. When Rika saw what was hanging from her jaws she came instantly and fully awake. She grabbed a fistful of Kyuubimon's mane and tugged urgently, rousing her partner from her light sleep.

Kayamon spat out the bedraggled Impmon and licked her lips as if she was trying to get rid of a bad taste.

"What happened?" Kyuubimon demanded. "Where's Istaqamon?"

"He-- he's back there," Kayamon said tossing her head over her shoulder. "I don't _know_ what happened but he's changed-- and something's really _wrong_. Please, mother!" The graceful digimon who had faced down a Sovereign without a qualm was shivering and her voice quavered, "Please _help_ him!"

Rika gave her partner a look of understanding and accord. "Go," she said.

--o--o--o--

"That--" roared Azulongmon, "--is what your ambition has aroused!"

Yasuramon flew by his side, watching in horror as the very fabric of the Digital Dimension dissolved and was absorbed by the red tide of the devouring _thing_.

"How could I have known?" she pleaded with him. "I would never have-- I--" She trailed off into to silence, stunned at the enormity of what was happening to her world. "We must fight it somehow," she said with sudden resolve.

"Baihumon, the strongest of us, has battled with it. He could do no good and nearly perished in the attempt."

Yasuramon turned and smiled at Azulongmon. It was an expression that bore a distinct likeness to the cruelest that had ever graced the face of the lowly Kunomon. "Baihumon fought it _alone_, didn't he? _Typical_." Her voice dripped scorn. Yasuramon angled her wings and began a sweeping turn to the South. "Follow me. I'm going to introduce you to some digimon who understand the value of _teamwork!"_


	18. Like Robin Hood

--o--o--o--

Chapter 18

Like Robin Hood

--o--o--o--

Kyuubimon cleared the ridge with her daughter close behind her and slowed as she approached the digimon that had once been Istaqamon. She narrowed her eyes against the glare of light that shown from the glowing surface of the hovering head. That seemed to be all there was of him, just a silvery coyote's head with no body attached.

But that wasn't the strangest thing about the scene. The desert immediately surrounding rippled as if seen through a heat haze. It was no optical illusion, the actual substance of the desert _was_ rippling-- not just sand but rock as well. Looking closer, Kyuubimon could see that bits of data were being cast off from the ground and even the air like wounded digimon on the edge of fragmenting often did.

She stopped just beyond the edge of the disturbance surrounding the head and called out, "Coyomon?"

The head turned toward her and she realized that it wasn't even solid. She could see though the eyes to the landscape beyond. It was a hollow mask. The mouth slowly opened and she could see desert through that opening, too.

A voice laden with pain and effort came from the empty mouth. "Re-na-mon? Ahh--"

That last had been a cry of agony or desperation, Kyuubimon couldn't tell for certain which one, but even as distorted as it was, she knew it for the voice of her mate.

The mask shuddered and rapidly flickered through several different forms. First, a taijitu swirled on its forehead, dragging and distorting the rest of the mask's shape as it turned. Then a horn sprouted from when the yin-yang symbol had been and shrank back almost immediately as the edges of the mask flared out in a ragged edge, suggestive of a lion's mane. Finally, a slit-pupiled eye opened and blinked once from the center of the forehead before vanishing.

As the mask had gone through its bizarre sequence of shapeshifting, part of the desert beneath it had dissolved and now a ragged hole edged with dully glowing nurbs was left. Kyuubimon saw that the moving nurbs were trying to re-weave themselves but were being forced back, widening the hole, by whatever strange energy was streaming from the mask.

"Help him!" cried Kayamon in a distraught voice. "I don't know what to do!"

"_No_," came the agonized voice from the mask." Get-- away-- I--"

Kyuubimon approached it, leaning into the violent radiance. She winced in pain and forced herself forward. The mask shuddered and the third eye formed once again. Kyuubimon gave a gasp of shock as strength drained out of her and her Champion body shrank away leaving her in her Renamon form.

"Rrrr-- run-- _aaahh_--" the mask moaned. "Don't--"

"Shut up, you stupid coyote!" Renamon growled, "I'm not-- not leaving you like this." She reached out, her hands distorting and casting off bits of red data as she leaned over the ragged hole into nothingness, and grabbed desperately at the edges of the mask.

--o--o--o--

Rika had woken the rest of the team except for Jeri, Calumon and Susie. She explained what she knew of the situation to them when they had assembled outside the cave.

"I don't understand," Kazu said as he looked down at Impmon's unconscious body. "Istaqamon fought him, or what?"

"I don't know for sure but--" Rika began.

"Well, what _do_ you know?" Kazu interrupted impatiently.

Rika's fists flicked with a hint of blue fire and Kazu flinched back, stepping slightly behind the bulk of Guardromon. "Hey, I'm just asking--"

Takato stepped between the two of them and spoke to the group. "Look, it's almost day and we've got to decide what we're going to do. We need to take Calumon back to the real world but--"

"I'm not leaving them." Rika snapped.

Takato turned to her and gave her a stern look. Surprisingly, Rika sighed, crossed her arms across her chest and let him continue.

"As I was saying," Takato continued, "I don't want to split up the group again. We can all go and see what's happened to Rika's partners. They can't have gone all that far. Then we can go on South to the gate, together."

"Um-- Takato?"

"Yes, Kenta?"

"What about Impmon? What do we do with him?"

Takato looked down at the battered little digimon. "I don't know what Istaqamon did to him but he looks pretty harmless now. I don't think we need to worry about him."

"No, I meant--" Kenta trailed off.

Takato knew his shy friend pretty well. If Kenta had been so forward, there was something bothering him. "Go on."

"I just thought-- are we going to leave him here? He's not very strong and some bigger digimon will probably--" he stopped talking again and made a vague gesture that everyone understood, nonetheless.

"So what?" Kazu snorted. "He did his best to kill all of us. Who cares what happens to him?"

"I don't believe it," Rika laughed, "I actually _agree_ with Kazu about something!"

"I dunno," Henry said, thoughtfully, "It doesn't seem right to just leave him. Why did Kayamon bring him here, Rika?"

Rika was just about to speak when a musical voice came suddenly from behind her and Takato, making them both jump in surprise. "Father told me to."

"Jeeze!" Takato grumbled at Kayamon. "You're not going to be sneaking up on us all the time like Renamon used to do, are you?"

Kayamon cocked her head curiously at him. "Couldn't you hear me coming? I wasn't trying to be especially quiet."

"Never mind that!" Rika snapped. "Where are Kyuubimon and Istaqamon?"

Kayamon gave her a look similar to the one she had given Takato. "Are all humans mostly deaf and blind? Can't you _feel_ them?"

"No, I can't! Now, will you please tell me--" Rika suddenly stopped. The whole team had gone quiet and she realized that she _could_ feel something. Something like the electricity in the air before a thunderstorm. The digimon in the group were staring wide-eyed out into the night and the children followed their gaze, seeing a shifting light illuminating the twisted forms of desert rock as it moved closer to the camp. Then there was a collective intake of breath as the team saw the figure that stepped around the shoulder of stone at the head of the valley.

--o--o--o--

"Another digivolution," Yasuramon growled as she flew. "That will rouse the enemy even further, won't it?"

"Yes," Azulongmon rumbled, "but this one felt-- different, somehow."

"The humans were to take Calumon back to their world, not use him here! Istaqamon will have some explaining to do."

--o--o--o--

The team all stared silently at the brilliant figure striding toward them, except for Henry who read from the info disk of his digivice.

"Renamon, Spirit Mode. Mega. Holy cow--"

"Huh?" Kazu said, not taking his eyes off the gleaming figure that lit the landscape around it. "That's an attack? 'Holy Cow'?"

Even the patient Henry almost snapped at Kazu then. "No it's not! There aren't any attacks listed." He glanced down at his digivice again. "No data type either."

Kayamon was circling the figure, frisking around it like a puppy and having her next to it made it clear that, even though it looked like Renamon wearing a silver mask, it was nearly twice as tall as she had been.

"I _knew_ mother would know what to do! She's not only strong and beautiful, she's really, really, _really_ smart, too!" Kayamon's voice was a happy singsong-- almost a chant, "It was _so_ scary, but _she_ wasn't afraid! She didn't even mind when the desert started falling apart and father grew a horn and a scary eyeball and--"

Takato leaned over to Rika and whispered out of the corner of his mouth to her. "What the heck is she talking about?" Rika merely shrugged.

The Mega stopped a short distance away from the group and put a hand on Kayamon's head, stopping her flow of happy chatter. Rika stepped forward. "Renamon? Is Istaqamon okay?"

The beautiful silvery mask turned to look down on the girl, somehow radiating warmth and goodwill despite its smooth, expressionless surface. "We are Renamon _and_ Istaqamon," it said in voice of quiet power that was a blend of both Rika's partners. "We are Leomon, Rapidmon, and--" the masked head turned to gaze at the little purple digimon who lay at Kenta's feet, "Beelzemon, too. All are part of us."

Kazu snorted. "This is nuttier than squirrel poop!"

"What do you mean, _you're_ Rapidmon?" Terriermon said, coming forward to stare up at the glowing Mega. "_I'm_ Rapidmon! Or, I am _sometimes_, anyway."

"Of course," Renamon said, kneeling and holding out a hand to the little digimon, "but Beelzemon took that sprit from you during the fight. We took it from _him--_ and now we return it to you." A rush of greenish energy flowed from the Mega's palm and whirled around Terriermon, sinking into his body.

"Whoah!" Terriermon cried as he rapidly blinked his little black eyes. "That's great! I don't feel like microwaved sushi anymore!"

"You told me you were feeling fine." Henry said to him in a suspicious tone of voice.

"Um-- not _exactly_ 'fine'-- I just didn't want you to worry, Henry." Terriermon admitted sheepishly.

"What's going on?" came a voice from behind the group. Jeri had awoken and emerged from the cave. She was staring up at the glowing Mega. "Is that Renamon?"

"Sort of," Takato told her, "Are you feeling okay?"

Jeri didn't reply. She was looking up at Renamon, who was reaching out to her. Takato moved aside.

"Jeri," Renamon said tenderly, "you have bravely suffered so much. If we could return Leomon to you, we would-- but it is not possible."

Jeri bit her lip and tears welled up in her eyes at the mention of her partner.

Renamon bent over her. "We see that he gave something of himself to you in his final moments. You _do_ have a lion's heart-- and now we will give you what remains of him. He loved you, Jeri. We know this beyond doubt." A golden radiance flowed from the kneeling figure and surrounded the girl.

"_Leomon_," Jeri whispered softly as the glow fell inward and vanished into her body.

Renamon looked up and spoke to the group. "We have all the power that was given to Beelzemon by Zhuqiaomon and we will use it to ensure that every one of you returns safely home--"

Renamon suddenly broke off and turned, staring intently toward the North. The group automatically followed her gaze and saw the approaching Sovereigns-- the long coiling form of Azulongmon and bright golden spark of Yasuramon. Even though they were far in the distance, they grew rapidly and their size and power were obvious to everyone.

The magnificent Mega stood and strode to the fore of the group, head held high, ready to defend the team from this new possible menace and said in a voice in which Coyomon's tones clearly predominated, "Oh crap-- _now_ what?"


	19. The Real Enemy

--o--o--o--

Chapter 19

The Real Enemy

--o--o--o--

"Kenta," Takato said urgently, "take Jeri and Impmon back into the cave with Susie and Calumon. Get as far back as possible and don't come out until one of us comes to get you."

"Uh," Kazu said, "Maybe Guardromon and I ought to go with them-- to protect them."

"Good idea," Takato said, waving him away. "Now-- Renamon Spirit Mode?"

"Just 'Renamon' is fine."

"Okay, you said you still have all this energy from Beelzemon stored inside you?"

"Yes, we do."

"Can you share it with the rest of us? If we are going to have to fight two Sovereigns at once--"

"Of course, Takato. That is an excellent idea." The glowing figure turned toward the group and a radiant light flowed out ward from it, enveloping both humans and digimon. After only a moment the tall figure shuddered, began to shrink, and its mask fell away, bouncing once before it became Coyomon. Renamon in her familiar Rookie form stood beside him.

"Wow--" Takato shook himself out of the dazed state he had fallen into at the inrush of energy. "Hey, you guys didn't need to give it all to us. You should have kept some for yourselves."

Coyomon shook his head, "I'm afraid not. You see, along with all that special deva strength Yasuramon gave me, she also put in a way to instantly cancel it. Kayamon's an exception. The best thing I can do for you guys is try and talk to Yasuramon when she gets here--"

"Oh no," Takato interrupted him, "I don't know exactly what went on between you and her but I'm not going to take the chance that you'll make her even _more_ angry. _I'm_ doing the talking."

Coyomon looked around at the rest of the group. Everyone seemed to agree with Takato. He shrugged and went to stand beside Rika.

"Here's your stick, flea-bag," Rika told him, handing him the black metal staff she had been carrying around for days.

"Thank you," He said and took up a ready stance on her left side. Renamon mirrored him on their tamer's right and Kayamon, for lack of a better position, stood behind Rika and loomed over her.

"How did you do it?" Rika asked Coyomon as the rest of the group stood silently, watching the Sovereigns approach.

"It was the energy transfer technique," he told her. "I just pulled instead of pushing. Beelzemon was too beat up to resist me." Coyomon looked down and scuffed a toe in the sand in embarrassment. "I didn't realize how much power had been put into him. It was like trying to drink from a fire hose. If Renamon hadn't rescued me--"

Rika looked at her other partner. "How'd you rescue him? And-- what did it feel like, being-- together like that?"

"The how was easy," Renamon said. "A mask is meant to be worn. I just--" She mimed putting on a mask. "Together we could manage to handle the amount of energy."

"Ha!" Coyomon snorted. "Don't let her fool you, Rika, it was much more difficult than that! The energy disruption was tearing the place apart and Renamon had to--"

"Yeah, yeah," Rika waved him to silence. "Renamon's strong and brave-- you think I don't know that by now? What did it feel like to be-- well, like _that?"_

Coyomon and Renamon exchanged glances above her head. Finally Renamon spoke. "I don't think we could describe it in any way that would make sense to you, Rika. You'll just have to find out for yourself."

"Huh?" Rika frowned at her.

"Oh, come on, Rika!" Coyomon nudged her gently in the ribs. "Are you going to admit that gogglehead can do something you can't?"

"Oh." Rika said, realizing what Renamon was suggesting. "Um--"

"Don't sweat it, tamer!" Coyomon grinned, "Maybe Takato can _talk_ us out of this!"

The Sovereigns had arrived.

Azulongmon hovered above the group and lowered his huge head as far as possible. Yasuramon landed beside his head and took a step forward, her expression unreadable.

Takato moved forward on shaky legs and gave a very deep and polite bow. "Please excuse our intrusion into your realm. We only came to rescue our friend and we will return to our own world as quickly as possible."

"There," Yasuramon said to Azulongmon, "This boy called Calumon his friend and it is clear he is not a liar. Zhuqiaomon was wrong about humans. He was the cause of all this trouble, not I."

"Ooh--" Coyomon said under his breath, "trouble in paradise?"

Yasuramon's gaze blazed out at him. "Don't joke, you fool! The entire Digital Dimension is in deadly peril."

"Is there any way we can help?" Takato asked, almost reflexively.

Azulongmon gazed down at the boy. "I don't know much about humans but I think you must be a very remarkable young man. Why is it that you are so willing to help digimon?"

"Well, sir," Takato turned to look over his shoulder at Guilmon, who was staring up at the Sovereigns in awe, "maybe because my best friend _is_ a digimon."

Azulongmon nodded. "First you must know exactly what it is that threatens our world."

"Yes," Yasuramon put in, "It turns out Zhuqiaomon _did_ have a good reason to invade Earth-- he wanted some place to _escape_ to."

--o--o--o--

The Sovereigns told the team about the Ancient Enemy. How it had been in the Digital Dimension from the very beginning and seemed to grow more active whenever digimon digivolved. Azulongmon told them how he placed the Shining Digivolution into Calumon, who had been created for that very purpose, to stop digivolution in the Digital Dimension and prevent arousal of the Enemy. Zhuqiaomon had wanted Calumon to enable him to create an army of Megas to conquer the Earth. Kunomon had thwarted those plans but, by capturing Calumon and learning to use his power at will, had enraged the Enemy beyond what had ever been known before. The Enemy had always deleted digimon but now it was deleting the very substance of the Digital Dimension.

There were many questions but Takato got right to the heart of the matter. "Can it be hurt? Can we stop it?"

"Many digimon have tried to defeat it. None have succeeded." Azulongmon told him.

"We can't just let it destroy _everything!"_ Takato insisted, then flinched back as Yasuramon leaned forward, her gigantic nose nearly touching him.

She narrowed her eyes as she looked at the boy and when she spoke it was in tone of near disbelief. "I have watched you and your partner defeat much more powerful digimon. I have seen you and your friends work together in ways that no wild digimon would ever dream of doing and Coyomon assured me that I didn't comprehend the _half_ of your strengths."

"Um-- thanks, I guess," Takato mumbled, unsure of what Yasuramon was getting at.

"That is why I think that if the Enemy can be defeated, you and your friends will be the ones to do it." Yasuramon sighed and bowed her head. "Will you help us? I will give you whatever you ask, if it is within my power."

"Make sure my sister gets home safely," Henry said immediately, "no matter what happens to me."

Takato nodded, "And Jeri, Kenta-- and the rest," he gestured to the cave.

"And you?" Yasuramon looked at Rika. "What do you want?"

The girl had Renamon's digivice in her hand and was thoughtfully stroking her thumb along the edge of the screen's blue bezel. She looked up at the Sovereign and said solemnly, "I want first crack at it."

--o--o--o--

From the air, the ragged red line that gnawed away at the desert seemed to move slowly. The team looked down from the backs of the two Sovereigns in horror. They had seen destruction on a massive scale before-- swathes of Tokyo in ruins-- but this was more frightening for being more final. Behind the Enemy was a void-- a blackness that seemed more absolute than just empty space.

Yasuramon spread her wings and they glowed with radiant energy. She flicked them toward the void and great sheets of flame leaped outwards, roaring and blazing with power until they crossed the boundary behind the Enemy. There was no noise, no sense of any impact-- the Fire Wing attack just vanished as if it had never existed. It was an effective demonstration of what awaited them if they failed to stop the Enemy.

Then a third flying figure approached, curving around the edge of the world defined by the Enemy's presence.

Coyomon nudged Rika to get her attention away from the black void. "Hey, look, Rika!" he chuckled, "It's your boyfriend!"

She turned and her gaze followed his pointing finger. "Oh, no," she groaned, "not him!"

Ryo, riding on Cyberdramon's back, swooped down until they flew level with the Sovereigns. "I'd like to help, if I can!" he shouted to them.

"Follow," Azulongmon said to him and turned away from the world's edge to land in the place the team had already selected for their confrontation with the enemy.

"Hi, wildcat!" Ryo grinned at Rika when they had reached the ground. "Good to see you again. It looks like we're going to have quite a fight ahead of us. You ready for this?"

"Us?" Rika raised an eyebrow at him. "You think there's going to be something left of that thing for you to fight after _I_ get done with it?"

Ryo laughed a bit nervously, "That's the spirit!"

"Hmph," Rika snorted and turned away from him. She walked to the front of the group, Renamon, Coyomon and Kayamon following her.

"Did Rika pick up a _third_ partner?" Ryo asked Takato quietly.

"No, that's Renamon's daughter--" Takato began and then hesitated at Ryo's shocked expression. "Long story-- I'll tell you after the fight-- if there _is_ an after."

Ryo shook his head in confusion and then saw what Rika was doing. "Hey! You're not _really_ going to let her go up against that thing alone, are you?"

Yasuramon swung her massive head around to look at Ryo. Cyberdramon bared his teeth at her but she took no notice. "I promised it to her. If you try to interfere I will destroy you."

Cyberdramon crouched and growled and Takato quickly stepped between him and the Sovereign. "The rest of us will be ready for the second strike. You can join in then, Ryo."

Ryo calmed his partner. "Okay, but I still don't like the idea. Rika could get hurt."

Coyomon, one big ear swiveled back to catch Ryo's comments, chuckled. "Your boyfriend is worried about you, Rika."

"Would you stop calling him that? He's _not_ my boyfriend!" she snapped.

"But he's _so_ cute! Maybe if you impress him enough--"

Rika stopped and gave Coyomon a ferocious look. "Okay, okay!" he said, throwing his hands in the air in surrender, "you win-- _wildcat_."

Rika actually smiled at him. "Thanks. I know you're just trying to take my mind off-- _that_." She gestured at the Enemy, "but I'm okay-- really."

Coyomon nodded and let his gaze linger on her and Renamon for a long moment. "Okay, girrrls-- kick its ass!" He didn't wait for an answer but trotted back to the group, waving Kayamon after him.

--o--o--o--

The Biomerge Digivolution of Rika and Renamon was spectacular. Their combined Mega form shone with unearthly strength and beauty. Even the watching Sovereigns were impressed.

"Sakuyamon," Henry read from his digivice and then looked down at his partner. Terriermon was looking up at him with a tight, fierce smile. Henry grinned back. "Looks like fun, right partner?"

"You'd better believe it, Henry!" Terriermon said with enthusiasm.

Sakuyamon leaped into the air and spread her arms, the rings on her staff jingling musically. Her voice was powerful and clear and everyone heard her words as she sang them out, gathering her power.

"I, Sakuyamon,  
protector of all things true,  
will do my duty.

"River of chaos--  
oh, red sea of destruction--  
follow now my voice

"and feel the twin blades  
of beauty and of truth-- then  
fall before my might!"

Her staff swung and two great crescents of color swept out, cutting through the air with a sound like a high, pure note from a flute. The blades cut through the Enemy as if it offered no resistance and it vanished from sight. At first most of the watchers assumed that the cloud of particles that floated on the air towards them were the normal bits of data from a defeated digimon but soon the difference was apparent.

Coyomon plucked one of the floating petals from the air and sniffed at it. "Cherry blossom," he informed the others, wonderingly. "Now that's _classy!"_

"I don't believe it!" Ryo said. "That thing nearly killed Baihumon and she just brushed it aside like it was nothing!"

"Can it be?" Azulongmon rumbled, his long serpentine body twisting uneasily. "Is this our destiny, to merge with humans? To create a new sort of life, greater than both?"

Kayamon nudged Coyomon gently, her nose against his shoulder and spoke in a whisper. "What's wrong, father? You should be happy that mother defeated that evil thing."

"I am," he assured her. "I was just thinking-- how nice it would have been to know this was possible-- years ago." He suddenly shook himself and gave out a joyful howl that echoed off the cliffs. "_YAHOO!_ Tamers: 1, Ultimate Evil: 0! Who's yer daddy, red blobby thing?"

"That would be _me_," Sakuyamon laughed as she landed gently on the sand and smoothly separated into digimon and tamer again. Rika turned to Renamon and they gave each other a high-five. The group cheered.

"I must admit, Rika," Ryo said. "You were unbelievable!"

Rika gave him an open smile as she reached up to gather her hair back into her usual spiky ponytail. "Thanks, Ryo. Sorry I didn't leave anything for you and Cyberdramon." She turned to the Sovereigns. Yasuramon was looking uneasy. "How about a ride to the Southern Portal? I think we'd all like to go home now."

"Of course," Azulongmon said. "And if there is anything else we can do for you--" He stopped and lifted his head, looking into the distance.

In the air above the cliffs, rapidly growing larger, was a human-looking figure surrounded by a cloud of digignomes. "I'm so sorry to tell you this," Shibumi called out, "but it's not over yet."

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

**Author's Note:**

**Some of the pics linked to on my bio page have been updated.**

**There's also a new one of Kayamon.**

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**


	20. We Happy Few

--o--o--o--

Chapter 20

We Happy Few

--o--o--o--

"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" Coyomon shouted out as Shibumi was finishing his explanation. "So, you're telling us this thing has evolved from a simple piece of software that you wrote to delete programs that exceed their original parameters?"

"Well, yes-- but it's a bit more complex than--"

"And you also helped to write the code that lets us all digivolve?" Coyomon steamrollered on.

"Um-- yes, but I don't--"

"So let me get this absolutely clear," Coyomon had a definite growl in his voice now, "You designed two bits of software-- one that would let us digivolve and one that would try to _kill_ _us_ for digivolving? Are you frikkin' _stupid_ or _what?"_

"Ah-- I-- " Shibumi was looking a bit pale. In fact, he was looking a bit _transparent._ The digignomes were swirling around him in an agitated manner. The whole group of tamers and digimon had become nervous and uncomfortable about the confrontation.

"And this D-reaper thing is going to keep coming back unless we eliminate each and every tiny piece of it that is spread out all over the Digital Dimension?" Coyomon continued, "Is that right? Just let me know if there's anything you've left out, because I'm trying to get a handle on how well and truly _screwed_ we are!"

"Please, Coyomon, calm down," Renamon said as she caught hold of her mate's shoulders from behind and pulled him back against her chest, "Losing your temper won't help the situation."

Coyomon went stiff in Renamon's grasp and then let out one shaky breath and closed his eyes. "Alright-- you're right. But it's just so unbelievably dimwitted--"

"YOU VILE HUMAN FILTH!" Yasuramon roared out with the force of an open blast furnace, "YOU _DARE_ TO TOY WITH OUR LIVES LIKE THIS?"

The group gasped and turned to see the Sovereign's face twisted with fury and hatred. Kayamon looked back and forth between the Sovereign and Shibumi and then asked the enraged Yasuramon in a perfectly sweet and reasonable voice, "Do you want me to kill him for you?"

"Please, everyone!" Takato cried out, "I'm sure Mr. Mizuno didn't mean for things to turn out this way! We have to work together if we are going to have any hope of defeating the D-reaper!"

The Sovereign turned her furious gaze on the boy and he cringed but stood his ground. Guilmon stood at his shoulder, frowning up at the huge fox. "That's right. Don't be mad. We'll help you fight it."

While Yasuramon stared at the pair in amazement, Coyomon turned back to Shibumi. "Can we do it? With all of us fighting together, can we defeat this Chaos?"

Shibumi shook his head sadly. "I don't think so. There just aren't enough of you to hunt down and destroy every last bit of it and it seems to have learned-- oh-- I--" Suddenly a lot more of the landscape was showing through him. "Not yet! I haven't--" He faded away into nothingness and the digignomes scattered.

"Oh no!" Takato said.

"Feh!" Coyomon snorted. "Good riddance! The guy doesn't know better than to write destructive, self-evolving software-- what good would he be to us?"

"Hey," Terriermon called to Coyomon, "As a destructive, self-evolving piece of software, I resent that!" Coyomon made a rude hand gesture in his direction and Terriermon laughed.

"But--" Takato began but was interrupted by a huge rumbling sound that shook the ground. From the ragged edge of the Digital World there was an eruption of red particles that coalesced into a column of gleaming ooze. The group moved quickly away from the vicinity of the edge and watched in despair as the D-reaper renewed its destructive efforts.

"Damnit!" cursed Coyomon, "That old transparent guy was right-- how can we fight something that can regenerate that fast? It would take an _army_ of Megas!"

"Then," rumbled Azulongmon, "that is what we will use-- if Calumon is willing."

"Huh?" Calumon said from where he rested in Rika's arms, "Me? What can I do?"

"You carry the Shining Digivolution. We need you to release the true light within you."

"Well-- okay, if you think I can help." Calumon said doubtfully.

"It is your duty as the catalyst. But you are more than that-- you are also a digimon. As Calumon you have earned the right to choose your destiny."

Calumon looked fearfully up at Yasuramon. "She made me help her. She hurt me. She hurt me a lot."

Azulongmon shot an angry glance at his fellow Sovereign before he answered the tiny digimon. "We will not force you now and I will not allow Yasuramon to harm you again, no matter which path you choose. But without your aid I fear the Digital World is doomed. Will you help us?"

"Will it hurt?"

"No, little one, it will feel wonderful. All you have to do is find the light within you and release it."

"Okay," Calumon said slowly, "Of course, I'll help you. I couldn't let my friends down." He smiled up at Rika briefly before closed his eyes. The circling digignomes spiraled in around him as he concentrated.

Coyomon glanced at Yasuramon and didn't like what he saw. She was far too quiet and had lowered her body in a half crouch. The energy that flowed from her metallic fur swirled in ragged, disturbed spirals. Everyone else had their eyes locked on the straining Calumon who was now floating upward out of Rika's arms, followed by the circling digignomes. Coyomon took advantage of their distraction to slip over to Yasuramon. He placed a hand on her forepaw and she flinched as if she had been stabbed.

"Easy!" Coyomon whispered to her, "What's gotten you so upset?"

To his surprise, her answer formed as a powerful voice in his mind. She didn't speak aloud. _Your friends can merge with their tamers to become Megas at will-- more powerful than I would have ever imagined-- and they have good reason to hate me. Now an unknown number of new Megas will be created by this little digimon-- this little digimon who I tortured and enslaved just as Zhuqiaomon did to me. Do you think I will survive this day, whatever else may occur?_

Coyomon blinked. "Ah--" he said, unhelpfully.

_I will not go easily, I promise you. I will fight the Chaos with all my strength but I will do the same when your friends turn on me._

"Oh, you stupid bitch," Coyomon murmured fondly under his breath, "You still can't believe that everyone isn't as vicious and ruthless as you used to be! They're not going to turn on you. And if they did, they'd have to get through me first! Oh, they're never going to love you, that's for sure, but it just isn't in their nature to seek vengeance. They're good-hearted souls, every one of them." He cocked his head consideringly for a second. "Except for maybe Impmon but I don't think he's much of a threat anymore."

_You're serious?_

"Oh yeah, I took every ounce of that special energy out of him when I--"

_No, not that. What you said before-- about-- about-- protecting me. Would you really do that?_

Coyomon frowned as he thought back over what he'd said. "Oh, _that_." He considered silently for another moment. "Yeah-- yeah I would. Even in spite of those 'dog tags' you hung around my neck! 'Small reward', my furry ass!" He chuckled and shook his head at the memory of Beelzemon reading off the runes on his armor. "Maybe even _because_ of that. I _do_ appreciate a good joke, even at my own expense. But it will never come to that-- you'll see."

At that moment, Calumon gave out a little "Oh!" of surprise, as a small child might at unexpectedly finding a coin on a sidewalk. The digignomes packed tightly around him and he began to radiate a brilliant white light that soon became too bright to look at directly.

There was a sudden nova of energy that caused all the watchers to flinch away, except for Coyomon who squinted through his fingers, trying to see exactly what was happening. To his surprise, the energy streaming from Calumon's head tore the surrounding digignomes to shreds and carried their fragments away as it condensed into beams that shot away into the distance.

"Um--," Coyomon said, "The digignomes--"

"They sacrificed themselves to carry the Shining Digivolution to the outermost regions of the Digital Dimension." Azulongmon said. "They carried the call to arms to all who would listen."

"How long will it take them to get here?" Kazu asked nervously eying the roiling D-reaper.

"Here come the first ones now." The group looked up to see Mega digimon approaching from every direction. Kazu began reading stats from his digivice and the others joined in but couldn't even call out the names as fast as the Megas were ariving.

Azulongmon turned to the tamers and spoke to them earnestly, "This is not your fight. Thanks to you we now have the forces we need to fight the Chaos. You should return to your own world."

"We are not cowards," came a rough and vaguely familiar voice from the rear of the group. Several of the group started with surprise and all turned to see a very disturbing sight.

"We will fight along side of you." Jeri said, holding out her little dog hand puppet in front of her and making its mouth move in time with her words. She had torn the cloth around its neck into triangular bits and pulled them outwards to frame its head very like a lion's mane. Her face was stern and frowning and her voice was a very creditable imitation of Leomon's. "It is the honorable thing to do."

Takato stared at her incredulously. "Jeri--" he began uncertainly but she ignored him and pushed to the front of the group to stand, staring impassively out at the distant D-reaper. Takato looked up at Azulongman in desperation. "She can't stay here! She's upset-- she's--"

The dragon Sovereign looked down at the tiny girl and studied her for a moment. "Would you do me the honor of riding on my back as we go into battle?" He asked her.

"The honor would be mine," Jeri said in Leomon's voice as she made the puppet's head incline politely.

"You can't do that! She's just a little girl!" Takato shouted at Azulongmon.

"Each must make their own choice," the Sovereign told him. "She has made hers-- and she is certainly more than _just_ a little girl."

Takato opened and closed his mouth a couple of times and then looked over at Guilmon. The little red dragon smiled up at his tamer. "We can protect her, Takato!"

There wasn't much time to decide as the Megas gathered for battle but it was finally settled that Kazu and Kenta would go with Suzie, Lopmon, Impmon, and Guardromon to the South Gate. All they rest would stay and fight with the digimon.

"Where _is_ Kenta, anyway?" asked Kazu looking around. His friend was found to be helping a tiny pink Mega out of the crater it had buried itself in in its eagerness to get to the battlefield. "C'mon, dude! We're getting out of here!"

Rika and Renamon biomerged first, followed by Takato and Guilmon.

"Alright, Henry!" Terriermon sang out, "let's do it!" Within seconds the towering Mega Gargomon joined the battle line. Everyone squared off facing the fast approaching tide of destruction.

"Oh great!" Coyomon sighed from behind the line of Megas, "What am _I_ going to do? Hit the damed thing with a stick?" He twirled his bo staff for emphasis.

Yasuramon turned to him. _I can give you the strength you need to join us._ She told him silently, baring her immense, gleaming fangs in a frightening smile. _No 'dog tags', I promise you._

Coyomon grinned back at her. "Thanks, beautiful! You'd better make it quick," he nodded in the direction of the D-reaper. "That thing will be here in no time."

Yasuramon's smile widened a bit. _Yes-- a quickie for my Captain_.

"Um--" Coyomon began but Yasuramon's huge tail had already swept around him and she had lowered her head until her nose was level with his chest. The golden energy of her aura swept over him as her tail pulled him tight against her muzzle and he gasped at the sensation that swept through him.

"Wait!"

_No._

"You can't do this!'

_I can._

Coyomon braced his hands against Yasuramon's huge muzzle but couldn't resist her strength. Uncontrollable tremors rippled through him as she pushed energy into his body. Her tongue slipped out between her fangs and circled his body, crackling and sparking against his fur.

"Stop--" Coyomon moaned, "I don't-- _ahh_-- Renamon is--"

At the mention of his mate's name, Yasuramon flooded Coyomon with shrewdly directed energy and his words disappeared in an incoherent moan of pleasure. He convulsed and dug his claws into her muzzle, instinctively channeling energy back into her in an effort to regain some small measure of control over the situation. Yasuramon responded by doubling the amount of energy she was pushing into him and he tried even harder to shed it until the pair of them went incandescent with circulating data and raw power.

When she could no longer keep the digivolution vortex from forming around him, Yasuramon released Coyomon and sat back to watch him change. She found that Sakuyamon was hovering above her, staring down, her expression unreadable.

"You joined with your tamer," Yasuramon said, sneering, "and you gave no thought for him."

Sakuyamon said nothing.

"He never comes first with you-- maybe not even second. Who was that little purple digimon you were tending to?"

Sakuyamon said nothing but her perfect lips tightened and turned downward slightly.

"You don't deserve him." Yasuramon spat.

"I have lost my love of killing," Sakuyamon said and slowly swung her staff around to point at the sneering fox Sovereign, "but I think I would enjoy destroying _you_."

"He would never forgive me if I harmed you-- _either_ of you-- or we would see which of us--"

"HOLY FREAKIN' TESLA!" Yeii Coyomon's joyful shout cut through the tension between the two glaring Megas. "Get out of the way, I'm gonna kick some red, blobby ass!"


	21. D Day

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

**Author's Note:**

**"Yeii" is pronounced **_**yay-ee**_**. It's a Navajo word meaning "messenger of the gods."**

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

--o--o--o--

Chapter 21

D-Day

--o--o--o--

Yeii Coyomon's wings snapped open with a sharp crack and he leaped into the air. Sakuyamon and Yasuramon watched him arc upward to where Azulongmon carried Jeri into battle, light gleaming from his golden, long-bladed spear. Yasuramon gave Sakuyamon one last venomous glare and soared after him.

Sakuyamon floated slowly upward casting her gaze over the ragged line of battle. Each Mega seemed to have their own idea about how to go about fighting the D-reaper. What they lacked in organization was, fortunately, made up for in numbers. There was one section of the line that _was_ organized. Galantmon lead a tight wedge formation, driving toward the devouring red tide.

The merging of tamer and digimon wasn't total. Rika and Renamon reacted with one will but didn't share their memories or innermost thoughts. They could converse with each other after a fashion when necessary-- a true inner dialog. There were only seconds before the fight erupted but it was time enough for them to trade a few sentences.

_I feel so different when I'm with you like this, Renamon, so-- serene._ Rika told her partner. _But just now-- the anger-- it was so unlike you. _Rika had no mouth to smile with but the edges of Sakuyamon's lips quirked upwards a trifle._ It was more like me!_

_How disturbing. _Came Renamon's half-joking reply.

_Tell me about it!_ _But seriously-- I felt what you felt-- and-- it's so-- so complicated._

_If only life were as simple as fighting_. Renamon had no voice but her wistful tone was clear anyway.

_Yeah_, Rika agreed. _Good thing we've got a lot of fighting to do-- like right now_

Several huge Megas were getting in each other's way and the advancing D-reaper was coming dangerously close to them. Sakuyamon spun her staff lightly and called out in her clear, powerful voice.

"You, true enemy  
Of every digimon,  
Feel now my anger!"

Her Spirit Strike attack ripped away a large section of the D-reaper and the Megas that had only just started to realize their peril before it was removed for them, gaped at Sakuyamon in wonder.

"Spread out," she told them. "It moves faster than you think."

--o--o--o--

Yeii Coyomon swooped down and unleashed a Destroying Blade attack that tore through the D-reaper and annihilated a huge swath of it. He gave out a joyous howl and did a barrel roll out of sheer exuberance while climbing back up above the other combatants. He continued to rise until the battle lay spread out below him. At first glance, it looked like the digimon were winning. Already a large part of the D-reaper was gone but he knew how fast it could regenerate. The real battle would be won when every last bit of it was tracked down and deleted, and that was a job that would take perseverance rather than brute force-- not something that most digimon specialized in.

"Kayamon?" he called out, searching for his daughter in the mass of Megas.

"Here, father!" Kayamon rode on Yasuramon's back adding her Wind Fang and Song of Light attacks to the Sovereign's Fire Wing and Blazing Tail. Together they burned long strips of the desert clean.

Yeii Coyomon flashed them a salute with his spear. There was nothing for him to worry about there. He turned his attention elsewhere and saw Jeri sliding down one of the huge encircling chains that dangled from Azulongmon's body. He frowned in puzzlement and did a wingover, swooping down to just above the ground as Jeri leaped the last few feet to the sand.

"Jeri?" he said from just behind her. She didn't answer him but began trotting along the ragged edge of the desert, looking carefully at the rippling bits of reforming landscape. He soared past her and landed in front of her.

Jeri lifted her puppet and shouted, _"Move!"_

Her meaning was clear and Yeii Coyomon sidestepped with blinding speed, dodging the Fist of the Beast King attack that blazed past his shoulder. He turned just in time to see a small piece of D-reaper flame into nothingness.

"It's clever," Jeri said through her puppet, "It knows it's losing and it's trying to hide."

"How small a bit--" Yeii Coyomon began and then stopped, spinning to look at the fragmenting chunks of the D-reaper that the line of Megas were quickly destroying. He flickered out of sight for an instant and when he reappeared he was grinning widely. "It's as black as sin against all that digital energy!" He shouted joyfully. "It can't possibly hide from anyone who can phase shift!"

He flickered out briefly again and pointed. "Two more bits just there under the sand, Leomon! Cook 'em good!" His wings swept down in one powerful motion, throwing him into the sky. When he had climbed high enough he spotted the golden form of Yasuramon in the distance and arrowed toward her.

As he neared the Sovereign Cyberdramon, carrying Ryo, flew up along side him. "I saw you coming in full-throttle," Ryo called out to him, "something up?"

"Yup!" Yeii Coyomon grinned, "I think I know how to track down all the hidden bits of the D-reaper." And he explained what he had discovered.

"We should find as many digimon who can phase shift as possible," Ryo said. "There's renamon, of course, and ninjamon--"

"You know the Digital Dimension better than any of the rest of the humans," Yeii Coyomon said. "Do you think you could organize that?" Cyberdramon immediately began snarling angrily. "What's _his_ deal?" Yeii Coyomon frowned at Ryo's partner.

Ryo grinned ruefully. "I think he wants to finish the fight here first."

Yeii Coyomon raised one eyebrow. "Well, _of course_ we're going to finish here first! Ryo, did you ever consider hooking up with a partner that _wasn't_ a belligerent moron?" Cyberdramon roared and swung a vicious attack at him and Yeii Coyomon phased out just long enough to let Cyberdramon's claws pass through the air where he'd been before reappearing. "Seriously, Ryo-- you can't always be doing his thinking for him."

Cyberdramon bellowed in rage and his Desolation Claw attack energy rose in him. Yeii Coyomon spun in the air and hooked a thumb over his shoulder. "The enemy is _that_ way, chuckles."

There was a tense moment before Ryo got his partner under control and by that time they had reached Yasuramon.

--o--o--o--

When most of the major sections of the D-reaper were eliminated, it took on a new tactic. The frontal attacks stopped and small bits started to ambush the digimon, erupting from beneath the concealing sand. Many Megas were killed before Galantmon called them back from the line of battle and organized them into groups lead by digimon who could shift out of phase.

Kayamon pounced on every bit of D-reaper she could, only pointing out hidden bits to the digimon following her when there were more than she could attack at once. Afterwards, nobody could decide if the D-reaper had been intelligent enough to set up a complicated trap or Kayamon had just been very unlucky.

Whatever the reason, Kayamon was concentrating on a small bit of the D-reaper that lay just below the surface of the sand when a large piece of it erupted from deep under the desert directly behind her. As fast as she was, she still had no time to get away before it washed over her.

Yeii Coyomon heard her scream and snapped into a sharp turn, leaving his group and flying as fast as could toward his daughter's shriek of pain. He dove for the roiling mass of red, and saw Kayamon still desperately trying to leap free of the clinging substance. He tore through the air just above the surface of the desert and grabbed a fist full of Kayamon's mane as he passed over her. The shock of her sudden weight jerking at his arm nearly slammed him into the ground but he frantically thrashed his wings and gained a few precious meters of altitude, dragging his daughter away from the D-reaper.

He had acted instinctively. He knew that anything touched by the D-reaper dissolved into nothingness within seconds and that pulling Kayamon from its grasp was a futile gesture but he wasn't thinking then-- just reacting.

He phased out and scanned the desert for a safe place to land. There wasn't much of the red Chaos left-- the piece that had ambushed Kayamon was some of the last-- and he saw that the ground immediately below him was clean.

He also saw something unexpected. The energy armor that surrounded his daughter was fragmented and partially destroyed but it was still in place-- still circling her form at a short distance. As he watched, it shuddered and vanished but Kayamon remained whole. He phased back in and set her gently down on the sand. She groaned wearily and shivered once before reverting to her Champion form, Ceyamon.

"Coyomon?" came Sakuyamon's concerned voice from overhead. "Is she-- ?"

"I think she's okay," he said wonderingly.

Ceyamon took a deep, shuddering breath and opened her eyes. "Father? It-- it-- hit me from behind. Am I--" she looked down at her own hands in puzzlement, "Am I dying?"

"No, sweetie," Yeii Coyomon said shakily, brushing a tender hand over the top of her head, "I think you're going to be okay." He spread his hand across her chest just below her throat and pushed restoring energy into her.

Ceyamon leaped to her feet and angrily looked around her, flickering in and out of phase, growling, "That sneaky, bloody goo! I'll--" She stiffened and her eyes narrowed and shot out fiery darts of light that blasted into the desert. Each pulse of her Razor Gaze attack destroyed a tiny fragment of the D-reaper as it tried to slither away to safety.

"Oh yeah," Yeii Coyomon smiled, "she's _fine_."

The landscape went suddenly dim as a huge figure moved between them and the sky. All three looked up to see Yasuramon gliding overhead.

"She's well, it seems," the Sovereign called down, and began a sweeping turn to return to her battle group.

"It was that strange energy armor!" Yeii Coyomon yelled up to her. "It took the hit and disintegrated. It took a lot of her energy with it but it acted like a-- a-- fire break between her and the D-reaper."

Yasuramon kept turning and circled overhead. "Indeed? Then luck is on our side for once." Her long banner of a tail swept down and brushed across Yeii Coyomon and his daughter. It would have touched Sakuyamon as well but she dodged away from it with a scowl. Yasuramon shrugged. "Suit yourself, fox maiden."

Ceyamon was wrapped in a digivolution vortex and Yeii Coyomon's white buckskin clothing acquired a red trimmed border of black beadwork. His first glance told him that the patterns there were digirunes.

"Oh, come on!" he growled, "That was funny the first time but--"

"They project an energy armor shell just like Kayamon's, " Yasuramon interrupted him, "Read them when you have the time-- you might just be surprised." And she flew off without another word.

Yeii Coyomon had taken the knowledge of runes from Beelzemon along with everything else and looked down at himself again. He could make out his own name but it would take a lot of twisting and turning to see all the rest of the runes along the edges of his clothing and he had more pressing matters to attend to. Kayamon emerged from the vortex fairly glowing with new strength.

"Come on, ladies," he grinned at Kayamon and Sakuyamon, "We've got some clean up to do!" He leaped upward and fairly danced through the air toward his group. Kayamon spun in circles a few times, frisking and yipping like a puppy, before she raced back to her waiting Megas, sand spraying from her flashing paws.

Sakuyamon rose quite slowly and silently from the now empty patch of desert. She knew the runes, too. Renamon had learned them from Coyomon when they had merged in Spirit Mode and the knowledge of the words had passed through both minds that inhabited Sakuyamon as the piercing blue eyes behind the fox mask fell on their shapes as they had formed on Yeii Coyomon's buckskins.

_I won't even drink her data! I'll let it stain the desert wind. I'll tear off her wings first and then I'll--_

Rika found herself in the bizarre position of being the calm and restrained one of the partnership. _No!_ _We have to finish the D-reaper, Renamon. If we kill her now, it would cause chaos. Those words are poisonous lies. _

_She won't be able to lie without a tongue!_

_Renamon! _Rika's shock nearly separated them.

_Very well_, Renamon grudgingly acquiesced,_ We finish the fight. Then I will-- decide. _

--o--o--o--

It took them the rest of the day to find every piece of the D-reaper on that plane of the Digital Dimension. Even with their advantage many digimon had been lost but the word was spread as the surviving Megas returned to their home territories. Many of them carried with them energy armor runes that Yasuramon-- and, once she had shown him the configuration, Azulongmon-- had placed on them. Every speck of the six planes and the newer worlds would be scoured until the D-reaper was completely obliterated.

Azulongmon faced the reassembled tamers and their digimon in the darkness of the sudden night, his glowing blue aura lighting their forms in the gloom. "I can never thank you enough. It was only with your help that we found the path to the defeat of our ancient enemy."

"We were glad to help, sir." Takato said to him.

"You have saved the Digital Dimension from destruction and shown me a possible future for digimon and humans together that I did not dream of."

Takato scuffed one sneaker in the sand in embarrassment. He was saved from having to reply when a quiet voice spoke up from behind him.

"Not for some of us."

Takato turned and saw Jeri standing there, bowed with weariness. She had removed her ragged puppet from her arm and was holding it crumpled in both hands. "There's no future for Leomon-- we'll never be together again--" she broke down and sobbed, falling to her knees and letting the puppet drop from her hands.

Several things went through Takato's mind and none of them made it past his lips. It _wasn't_ all right. Jeri had every reason to cry. He finally knelt beside her and hugged her silently. She cried even harder but he didn't let go. Guilmon came to stand beside them, gazing sadly down at his tamer and his friend.

The whole group stood in embarrassed silence until Azulongmon spoke. "Your friends are waiting for you at the South Gate. I will send you to them." A mist began to form around the group and they all began to feel lighter. "You will always be welcome in my realm."

Sakuyamon hadn't separated into tamer and digimon like Mega Gargomon and Galantmon had done. She now took hold of Yeii Coyomon's arm and pulled him clear of the rapidly forming cloud. "We will find our own way back," she told the surprised group, "Don't wait for us."

Several of the group called out startled questions as they began to rise into the air and Kayamon rushed to the edge of the cloud and prepared to leap off.

"Go with them, sweetie!" Yeii Coyomon called up to her. "They need someone prudent to protect them. I'll be along soon! If you're in doubt about what to do, ask that guy who had the smiley faces painted on his missiles-- he's a pretty sensible sort." Terriermon laughed and used one of his ears to give Yeii Coyomon a thumbs-up gesture. Henry groaned.

When the cloud had disappeared in the darkness and Azulongmon had headed back to his realm, Yeii Coyomon turned to Sakuyamon and raised a questioning eyebrow. She raised her head to look up at the bright line of gold that was circling lower and lower in the night sky, growing ever larger. "Soon," she promised him.


	22. Winning the Peace

--o--o--o--

Chapter 22

Winning the Peace

--o--o--o--

There was a part of Yeii Coyomon that was fascinated by the idea that two of the most powerful beings in existence might fight over him like a couple of drunken bimbos outside of a bar. Fortunately, it was a very _small_ part of him. The rest of him found the prospect fairly horrifying. He desperately groped for something to say but it seemed as if his glib tongue had deserted him.

_"Nikola suffering, bald-headed Tesla and all of his pot-bellied aunts and uncles!"_ he cursed under his breath.

Sakuyamon shifted her staff slightly, making its rings clink together, but gave no other sign that she had heard him.

The looming confrontation made no sense to Yeii Coyomon. They could have left with the others and never seen Yatsuramon again. It just wasn't _like_ Renamon to want revenge-- more like Rika's style-- he started with realization. Sakuyamon wasn't just Renamon's Mega form; _Rika_ was in there too.

"Renamon--" he said.

"Sakuyamon," she corrected.

"I'm just talking to _half_ of you, princess," Yeii Coyomon said. "I'm talking to the half that's about to risk her tamer's life in a fit of jealousy."

Sakuyamon turned to look at him then. "Don't be stupid, flea-bag. This whole thing was _my_ idea." Even without the use of her habitual nickname for him, the tone of the remark was obviously Rika's.

_"What?"_

"Until this gets settled one way or the other, Renamon is going to be upset and unhappy and I can't think of anything else I want right now except to make her happy. If I have to go up against a Sovereign to do that--"

"There's no way I'm going to let that happen!"

"How are you going to stop me, flea-bag?"

Yeii Coyomon sputtered in frustration for a second before replying. "Damnit! I promised Yasuramon that none of us would turn on her after the battle was over! You're just confirming her bad opinion of us!"

Sakuyamon stared at him for a moment and then said quietly, "She doesn't seem to have a bad opinion of _you_." And she flicked the fringe of Yeii Coyomon's jacket with the tip of her staff.

He'd forgotten the runes. He looked down and lifted the edge of the buckskin, turning it so that he could read them: _Coyomon. Captain of Devas in the Realm of the South. Right Hand of the Sovereign. Beloved of Yasuramon. _"Beloved?" he breathed, "Oh, _shit_."

"She will remove those runes and apologize to Renamon or we will tear that oversized tail right off of her." Sakuyamon said softly.

"I love you, Rika." Yeii Coyomon said.

"Wh--what?" Sakuyamon stammered.

"You are one of the most amazing people I've ever met. A twelve-year-old girl who's braver than any man or digimon I know. You're tough, smart, and independent and you saved me from a pointless existence as a Wild One-- from always being on the outside of things. How could I _not_ love you?"

Sakuyamon frowned and shifted uncomfortably. "I don't understand."

"I'm getting there," Yeii Coyomon assured her. He sighed deeply and continued, "I will _die_ before I see you harmed, Rika. If you intend to confront Yasuramon, I will take her on myself. I will betray my word to her and I will do my best to destroy someone who I have come to respect and care for. And let's face it," he grimaced and pointed up at the huge golden form of the descending Sovereign, "she'd kick my ass without even breaking a sweat."

"Not with me by your side."

Yeii Coyomon actually laughed. "There! How can you imagine I wouldn't love a spirit like that?"

Sakuyamon stepped close to him and looked directly into his eyes. "That was Renamon."

"Sure it was."

"Alright, then-- we will leave Yasuramon in peace-- but get rid of the jacket, okay?"

"Of course. But I think we're going to have to have some words with her. She's nearly here--" he said looking upward again and frowning, "and there's something different about her."

Sakuyamon looked up and saw that he was right. Yasuramon radiated immense strength and seemed to be trailed by small fragments of glowing energy.

"Hey!" Yeii Coyomon exclaimed, "Those are digignomes! What the hell is that twisted vixen up to now?"

"I heard that." Yasuramon's golden voice floated down from above.

"Yeah, well, you've got ears the size of teepees-- I'm not surprised." Yeii Coyomon yipped back at her.

Yasuramon swept down and landed nearly silently in front of the pair. The digignomes circled just above her head. Yeii Coyomon could feel Sakuyamon tense up beside him but she didn't speak or move. He stood with his hands on his hips and his head cocked to one side, surveying the shining Sovereign and her flock of followers. "You're looking well-rested. What have you been doing since the battle ended?"

"I was killing Baihumon," she said bluntly.

_"What?"_ Yeii Coyomon shouted. "You-- you can't still be--"

Yasuramon smiled. "You think I am still intent on conquest or revenge? No. You may not believe it but what I want more than anything now is peace."

"And you think killing the other Sovereigns will bring peace? You've got to be kidding me!"

Yasuramon shook her massive head. "Just Baihumon. The rules have changed now and he _couldn't_ change. The days when dumb, brute force would keep peace in the Digital Dimension are gone and it will take rulers with wisdom as well as strength to control it now. I believe Azulongmon and Ebonwumon will be able to rise to the challenge."

"But with the D-reaper gone--" Yeii Coyomon trailed off as he began to realize the shape that the future would take. "With the D-reaper gone--" he repeated slowly, turning to look at Sakuyamon.

"There will be Mega-level digimon everywhere with no common enemy to fight," Sakuyamon said with a stunned expression.

"And no limits on the ability of the lower levels to digivolve," Yasuramon added.

"Holy freakin' Tesla! It'll be a slaughterhouse!"

"Unless it is ruled firmly-- and wisely," Yasuramon repeated. "Baihumon would have tried to settle things with his own claws and fangs-- the only sort of diplomacy he understood. His realm would have been a smoking ruin within days."

"But now it doesn't have a Sovereign at all!"

"I feel perfectly capable of ruling half of the Digital Dimension," Yasuramon said lightly. "_All_ of it, actually, but hopefully it won't come to that."

Yeii Coyomon and Sakuyamon exchanged glances.

"It would be easier with the aid of a good Captain, of course." Yasuramon said quietly, smiling slightly. Sakuyamon bristled and began to speak but the Sovereign forestalled her with a raised paw. "Forgive me. I find it hard to resist a small jibe now and again."

"About that--" Yeii Coyomon said, taking up the corner of his buckskin jacket in one hand and lifting it.

"Ah yes," Yasuramon merely glanced at the runes and they rippled into beautiful but meaningless patterns. "My 'teepee' ears are even better than you think. I've heard everything you've said." She turned to Sakuyamon. "I apologize to you, Renamon _and_ Rika, for everything I have done against you."

"And you accept that he is mine-- now and forever?" Sakuyamon said and then turned to Yeii Coyomon. "That was Renamon," she clarified. He smiled and winked at her.

"Accept? Yes-- but only because I know there is nothing I can do to change that."

"And you promise to behave yourself?"

Yeii Coyomon winced. That last _had_ to have come from Rika. Yasuramon went silent and then the corner of her mouth twitched slightly and there was a noise from deep in her throat like bubbles rising in melted chocolate that Yeii Coyomon fervently prayed was a sign of amusement.

"Behave?" Yasuramon's voice was low and soft, straddling the line between humor and danger. "Oh-- now, I couldn't possibly promise you _that."_

There was a long, long silence as Sakuyamon and the Sovereign stared at one another and Yeii Coyomon shifted uncomfortably. There were several things he wanted to say but it seemed wiser to hold his tongue.

"May you rule long and wisely," Sakuyamon finally said. Yeii Coyomon let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

"Thank you," Yasuramon chuckled. "I can hardly rule long if I do _not_ rule wisely,"

--o--o--o--

Takato was sitting in front of the shimmering portal, leaning against Guilmon who was curled up and sleeping behind him. Leaning against him was Jeri, also asleep. He spoke quietly, so as not to wake either of them. "Any sign of them, Henry?"

Henry craned his neck around to search the sky to the North. He had to hold his head at an awkward angle to keep the sleeping Terriermon from sliding off his shoulders. "Nothing yet," he whispered back.

Ryo paced back and forth, kicking at small pebbles and occasionally glancing up at Cyberdramon who was hunched over, squatting at the edge of the glow cast by the portal. Kayamon was sitting next to him and the two of them were talking in low voices.

The rest of the group had been sent through the gate earlier. Henry insisted his sister be taken home immediately but Takato was unwilling to leave without Rika and Jeri refused to be parted from Takato. She never said anything but wouldn't let go of his arm when the others tried to take her with them. Henry hesitated but decided to stay. There was no hesitation from either Ryo or Kayamon.

"Do you think--" Takato began.

Kayamon made a sudden startled noise and the humans turned to look at her. She was still next to Cyberdramon but standing now and glaring in the direction of Ryo.

Ryo stopped pacing and walked over to the pair of digimon. "Is something wrong?"

Kayamon took a couple of steps backwards, her eyes still narrowed, and her lips lifted from her teeth. "Is it true?" she hissed at Ryo. "Do you hurt him with that _thing?" _She practically spit the last word, using her muzzle to point at the digivice that hung from Ryo's belt.

"Uh--" Ryo hadn't ever thought of the energy lash technique as a punishment. He'd had to use it several times to keep Cyberdramon under control but it never occurred to him how it felt to Cyberdramon. "He's hard to control sometimes and--"

"You're his partner! How can you _do_ that to him?"

"You don't understand. I don't want to hurt him but--"

Kayamon's eyes literally blazed. "And you humans call _us_ monsters! My father is wrong about you. You aren't worthy of--" Cyberdramon had had enough. He rose to his feet and snarled at Kayamon.

Takato was on his feel in an instant and rushed to stop the quarrel. Jeri rolled back against Guilmon and blinked sleepily.

"Stop it!" Takato said. "Please, Kayamon, we're not perfect but we try our best."

"Then why do you do such awful things?" There was a note of pleading in Kayamon's voice. "We fight for you. We _die_ for you! Father says there can be friendship and even love between us but I've never seen it. You only--"

"Hey!" Henry said, "I think I see something! Yeah-- it's a light in the sky-- moving like an airplane."

Jeri wiped at her eyes, confused at waking in the middle of an argument. "What is it?" she asked.

Cyberdramon faced the distant object. "Something powerful." He growled.

Kayamon turned, too. After a moment of concentration she sighed with relief. "It's father-- and mother and my Sovereign." She moved away from the group and Cyberdramon relaxed slightly.

Jeri walked over to Takato and took hold of his arm again. Henry prodded Terriermon awake. Guilmon continued to snore softly.

Within minutes the golden radiance streaming from Yasuramon overpowered the faint glow of the gate and clearly illuminated the two smaller figures flying along side. When they landed Kayamon ran to greet them-- her father, joyously-- her mother (and Rika) politely-- and her Sovereign, with the deepest respect. She backed away when the tamers approached.

Even the humans could sense the change in Yasuramon. The very nearness of such a presence woke Guilmon from his deep slumber. He blinked and said, wonderingly, "Look at all the digignomes!"

Sakuyamon separated into tamer and digimon. "You didn't need to wait for us Takato," Rika said while stealing a sidelong glance at Ryo, "but I'm glad you did."

I'm glad you're safe," Takato said. "We can go home now."

"Um-- not just yet," Yeii Coyomon said. "Yasuramon has some gifts for you."

The tamers turned to look at the Sovereign in surprise. "Gifts?" Takato asked doubtfully.

"Yeah--" Yeii Coyomon said with a bit of hesitation in his voice. He knew he ought to be used to being the bearer of bad news by now but the expressions of dismay still seemed to bother him, somehow. "You see, just because the old Sovereign is dead doesn't mean that digimon will stop finding their way to Earth-- and now with more digimon being Megas and all--" None of the children were stupid and they all realized the implications immediately.

"We're still going to have to fight off Wild Ones? _Strong_ Wild Ones?" Henry's expression was one of shock but strangely Terriermon's face lit up in a wide grin.

"Yep. So Yasuramon thought it would be handy for you all to still be able to biomerge once you get back to the Real World. She's whipped up some code or spell or something that will let your physical bodies do that."

"I didn't think that we wouldn't be able to--" Takato said with a look at his partner.

"Well, now you know," Yeii Coyomon interrupted him impatiently. "You'll all get energy armor, too. The D-reaper should be history in a few days, but the armor is still pretty darned useful. Line up and get your goodies, guys."

The tamers stepped forward and were a bit surprised when a digignome flew down to each of them. Takato was just putting a finger up to his and beginning to say, "Hey, there--" when the blast of energy from Yasuramon's eyes burned through the little creature and drove its particles deep into his chest.

All the tamers staggered back, disoriented by the sudden change in their bodies. "Aw-- the poor little guy!" Takato cried out. "Did you have to do that?"

Yasuramon looked down at him as if he were some species of interesting insect. "That is their purpose," she said, using her most powerful, intimidating voice. "They create and change. Scores were transformed to make Guilmon and they were happy to do it." The remaining digignomes swirled around her and trilled as if in agreement.

"I-- I'm sorry," Takato said, still unhappy about the tiny creature's death. "I know things are different here. I will try to understand."

Yasuramon's gaze swept over the group. "You will always be welcome in my realm," she said formally.

"That means 'get your butts through the portal, already'," Yeii Coyomon helpfully translated.

"No," said a quiet, musical voice.

"What?" Yeii Coyomon turned to see his daughter backing away from the group, shaking her head.

"Not to the human world, father!" she protested, still backing away until she stood next to one of Yasuramon's huge forepaws. "I-- I don't-- I don't _like_ them! Please stay here with me. We can serve the Sovereign together. We can fight her enemies together."

Yeii Coyomon felt a twisting sensation in his stomach. No armor could defend him from the hurt his child could deliver. "Oh, sweetie," he said softly as he walked over to her and stroked her head, "I _can't_ stay here. My place is with your mother and our tamer. I won't force you to go, but I _have_ to."

"She will have high rank and be honored among my devas," Yasuramon said. "I will give the portal spells to you and you may visit her whenever you like and, if she so desires, she may visit Earth with you. Perhaps you can change her opinion of humans in time-- though I think she is closer to the truth than you are."

"Is that alright with you, Kayamon?" he asked her. She didn't say anything but pressed her head against his chest and let him stroke her silky mane as she nodded ever so slightly. "I'll come see you soon, I promise," he told her and gently kissed the top of her head.

"I am so very proud of you," Renamon said from behind her mate's shoulder. Yeii Coyomon moved aside and let Renamon fold her daughter into a loving hug. "The Digital Dimension will be a better place because of you. I know it in my heart." Kayamon pressed her shoulder harder into Renamon's chest and made a tiny, wistful sound.

"Hey!" Yeii Coyomon said cheerfully. "I've got a good idea!" He continued, despite several of the group groaning quietly, "You save a couple of the nastiest Megas for us-- We'll fight them together-- sort of a family outing!"

Kayamon smiled, almost shyly. "I'd like that."

The tamers and their digimon began to file through the gate. When only Rika and her partners were left, Yasuramon spoke again. "I have one last thing I would like to discuss with Yeii Coyomon-- _privately_."

Renamon's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Yeii Coyomon took her head in his hands and turned her to face him. "You don't need to trust her, lover. You can trust _me_." He pulled her to him and kissed her thoroughly and lovingly. Her tense body relaxed and molded itself against his as her arms tightened around him.

"Yuck!" Rika exclaimed, rolling her eyes in disgust as she turned her back on them. They held the kiss for a long time. Rika sighed impatiently and kicked at the sand.

Finally, the lovers broke off their embrace and Renamon shot one cold glare at the impassively watching Sovereign. "If he doesn't come through that gate in less than ten minutes, I'm going to come back here and rip your tail out by the roots. Do you understand me?"

"And a pleasant farewell to you, too, Renamon," the Sovereign said placidly.

Renamon grabbed Yeii Coyomon by his cheek tufts and planted one last forceful kiss on his muzzle before stalking through the sparkling gate. Rika sighed again and followed her.

Yeii Coyomon looked up at the sovereign doubtfully.

"There's another threat you need to worry about," she told him.

"Really? Other than Mega invaders?"

"Oh yes-- and it's much, much more dangerous."

Yeii Coyomon frowned. "You've got to be kidding me. What could be a threat to digimon in the Real World? We're literally bulletproof! It would take an army to--"

"It would only take a handful of men-- if they were the _right_ men."

Yeii Coyomon could see that Yasuramon was in deadly earnest. "Tell me," he said.

She did.

--o--o--o--

"I can see why you didn't want the tamers to know," he said quietly when she had finished.

"Humans are nasty, evil creatures!" Kayamon put in forcefully.

"Well-- yes," her father admitted, "some of them are. But not all, sweetie-- not all." He sighed sadly. "Not even _most_ of them. But sometimes the really bad ones seem to overshadow the rest."

Yasuramon and Kayamon looked at each other for a moment and Yeii Coyomon suspected they might be mind-speaking to each other. Kayamon laughed and said aloud, "That's a _good_ idea!"

"You worry me when you say things like that," he said dryly.

"I was just suggesting to your daughter one last gift for you-- to help you against the threats you will face."

"I'm a natural Mega now," he said, stretching out his long wings for emphasis. "How much help do you think I'll need against some sneaky humans now that I know what they're up to?"

"Don't underestimate them. They're very clever. You can't be everywhere at once and you'll need help-- _digimon_ help. The humans will be unlikely to aid you against their own kind. In the Real World there are peaceful Wild Ones and even partnered digimon that will aid you if you bear some mark of leadership or authority."

Yeii Coyomon didn't like the amused look on Yasuramon's face-- and Kayamon was trying desperately to stifle a fit of giggles. Not a good sign. Yasuramon lifted one of her huge paws and between two toes, he could see a tiny, powerful spark of blue-white energy. "Wait a minute--" he began, but Yasuramon's paw flashed forward and Yeii Coyomon was blasted through the portal by the explosion of searing energy that erupted when it struck him.

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

**Author's Note:**

**Wow. Long chapter there. I hope it didn't bog down for you. I just couldn't find a good place to break it into two pieces.**

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--**


	23. The Final Threat

--o--o--o--

Chapter 23

The Final Threat

--o--o--o--

Three Months Later

---

Coyomon had a reputation among the tamers and other digimon as having terrible timing. That was because he carefully picked his moments to pull off a stunt or crack a joke and he always did it at a time that he thought was perfect. Perfect for _him_. Not many others agreed.

Yamaki and Riley certainly didn't. They had been sharing a very intimate-- and vigorous-- moment in the bedroom of their apartment when Coyomon quietly phased in, leaning against the door frame. Unseen, he watched them for a second or two before commenting, "Damn, Riley, you have got a really nice ass! You must work out."

Riley screamed in surprise and she must have dug her nails pretty hard into her partner because his yell conveyed a good deal of pain as well as surprise. She rolled off of him, spun and grabbed the coverlet, and held it up to her neck as she backed up against the headboard. Yamaki pushed himself to a sitting position and it took him a second to realize what was going on.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" he screamed at Coyomon.

"But I took so much trouble to get _in_ here." Coyomon replied with wide-eyed innocence.

Yamaki fumbled at the bedside table for something for a few seconds and then ripped open its drawer. Coyomon strolled over to the other side of the bed as Yamaki continued to frantically search.

"Listen, sweets," he leered down at Riley, "if you ever get tired of this jerk, just give me a whistle." It took Riley a couple of startled seconds to realize what Coyomon was saying and then she gasped and her face flushed an attractive pink. "Seriously--" he leaned down and curled his long tongue around his muzzle, pulling it upward nearly to his eyes. If a golden retriever had done it, it would have looked comical. Coyomon made the motion perfectly obscene. "--once you go digital, you'll never go back."

"Get away from her!" Yamaki bellowed, abandoning his search.

Coyomon graciously stepped back from the bed and a now bright red Riley leaped up and fled from the room. The coverlet she was holding against her did nothing to hide her retreating bottom and Coyomon watched her go with a smile. "Yep-- good butt on that girl." He sighed a bit wistfully, "too bad she hasn't got a tail."

"You perverted monster!" Yamaki growled at him.

"And _you_ evil genius!" Coyomon said in a cheerful tone of voice, turning back to face him. "And why we talk like Tarzan now?"

Yamaki sputtered for a bit, completely flustered by the digimon's seeming irrationality. "Why are you here?" he finally asked as he grabbed a pair of pants from the back of a chair and slipped them on. "If you're going to kill me, get it over with. I don't find this banter amusing in the least."

_"Kill_ you?" Coyomon asked with ridiculously feigned surprise. "Buddy, I'm here to _help_ you!"

Yamaki made a surreptitious search of his pants pockets as he frowned at the digimon. "Explain yourself."

"You're wearing yourself out with all this HYPNOS stuff! How many days off have you had in all the time since we got back from the Digital Dimension? Do you enjoy having all those government ministers screaming at you all the time? Do you look forward to being crucified in the news every time some Wild One breaks a few store windows or causes a fender-bender? Wouldn't you like to get away from all that?"

"So-- what-- you're offering to fight the Wild Ones for us? You do that already-- you _enjoy_ it!"

"Sure we do," Coyomon grinned at him. "That's why the damage is so limited. Heck, the tourist trade is booming because of it! Watching digimon slug it out on the streets of Tokyo has become the first extreme _spectator_ sport. There are hundreds of smart guys out there making money off the whole thing."

"So just what do you propose to do to 'help' me?"

"It's like this, pal--" Coyomon put an arm around Yamaki's shoulders as if he had been his best buddy. The Director of HYPNOS angrily shrugged it off.

"I'm not your 'pal'! Just spit it out, already!"

"Okay, okay! _Sheesh!_ What I've done is helped you into a new career." Coyomon smiled at the dawning look of horror appearing on Yamaki's face. "Or, more accurately, helped you _out_ of your old one."

"What did you do?" Yamaki gasped at him.

Coyomon made a sweeping gesture toward the apartment's living room. "See for yourself."

Yamaki ran out of the room and found Riley, still wrapped only in the coverlet, frantically stabbing away at her laptop. She looked up as he entered the room and said, "We're cut off. The landline is dead, I can't find my phone and I can't connect to the internet."

"Yeah--" Coyomon drawled as he strolled into the room after Yamaki, "-- an elecmon owed me a favor. Your building's phone and wireless systems are going to have to be replaced, I'm afraid. I respect your skills, Yamaki, and I didn't want to take the chance you might be alerted in time to do anything stop my little plan. Fortunately, you were way too busy with Ms. Buns-of-Steel here to--"

"_What did you do?"_

Coyomon just pointed. Yamaki and Riley turned together to look out the window of their apartment. In the distance the Tokyo City Hall building was just visible in the darkness. Bright, irregular flashes of light lit the interior three-quarters of the way up the left-hand tower. The humans realized immediately that the flashes were coming from the HYPNOS control center and offices.

"Don't worry," Coyomon said cheerfully into the shocked silence, "It's looks a lot worse than it is. Nobody's in danger. We scared everybody off of the HYPNOS floors before we let our wrecking crew loose on your equipment. _Yuggoth-- Juggernaut-- Ragnarok--_ some pretty nasty code you guys had up your sleeves, that's for sure. And here we thought you were on our side-- all grateful because we'd saved the world-- both worlds, in fact." He shook his head in mock sadness. "At first we thought that you guys were just writing code that would fling us back into the Digital Dimension and seal it off-- which is bad enough-- and then we stumbled onto the really nasty stuff."

Yamaki had turned away from the window and was now facing a very angry Coyomon. The digimon had dropped his joking manner and couldn't keep his teeth from showing. "Would you really have killed _all_ of us? Is that why you asked if I was going to kill _you?_ Is that the way your pulpy little meat-mind works?"

"_Ragnorok_ was a contingency plan." Yamaki growled back at him. "We wouldn't have used it if the enhanced _Juggernaut_ had worked."

"Is that supposed to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Should I be happy that mass murder was just your _backup_ plan?"

"You're _monsters_! You've invaded our world! What do you think we were going to do? Let you _things_ take over? It wouldn't be murder, it would be _pest control!"_

Riley lunged and grabbed Coyomon's upraised arm, screaming, "No, no! Please don't hurt him!"

Coyomon peeled her off his arm and pushed her away. He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I forgot myself for a second there."

"So now what?" Yamaki asked, also becoming calmer. "Even if you destroy all copies of the development system and code--"

"Oh, we're doing exactly that right now," Coyomon assured him. "In fact, that reminds me--" He turned and gestured with one hand toward Riley's laptop. Red blazing particles jetted from his hand and tore the computer to shreds, along with the end of the table it was resting on and a large swath of floor. "The 'Monster Makers' are being visited tonight, too-- along with anybody we know of who's ever done programming for HYPNOS."

"That won't stop us," Yamaki said coldly. "We can start again. We can recreate the programs, rebuild the equipment. We won't let you monsters win."

Coyomon shrugged and reached into his vest portal. He pulled out two cell phones and an unusual-looking PDA. The phones both began to ring and the PDA gave off a loud alarm signal. "I believe you were looking for these earlier?"

Riley took one phone and Yamaki grabbed the other two instruments. Riley glanced at her phone's screen and then turned it off. Yamaki dropped his still ringing phone and began rapidly tapping at the PDA's screen. After a second he pointed the instrument at Coyomon and pressed the large button near the base. Whatever he expected to happen failed to occur. He glanced at the screen and tapped out the sequence again. His second try produced nothing more than his first.

"My elecmon pal fixed _that_ nasty gadget, too. I was really hoping you wouldn't try and use it." Coyomon heaved a heavy sigh. "Oh well-- you failed the test and that means--"

"What-- what are you going to do?" Yamaki asked, still clutching his useless weapon.

Coyomon took a step forward and Yamaki took two backward. The digimon glanced down at the phone that was still chirping out its ringtone and put one paw on top of it. With a slight press and a twisting motion, he crushed the phone and the ringing stopped. "I don't like destroying things," he said quietly, "but that was becoming a real nuisance."

"Please!" Riley said, stepping between the two. "Please don't!"

Coyomon's eyes narrowed and began to glow. He lifted his arms and flung them outward. The humans' hair began to lift with the rising energy growing in the room. Coyomon grew taller until his ears were brushing the ceiling. His body became more powerful-looking, his vest flowed outward until it became a full suit of buckskin clothing, and a magnificent pair of wings unfurled from his back, sweeping outward until they touched the opposite walls of the room.

_"Please!"_ Riley begged as the transformed digimon lowered a gleaming golden spear until it was pointing at Yamaki's chest.

"Stand aside," Yeii Coyomon ordered her.

"I won't let you kill him!" Riley actually tried to swat the spear aside. Yeii Coyomon moved the blade out of the way. It would have cut her hand in half if she had touched it.

The Mega level digimon grinned at her. The sight of all those razor fangs was not reassuring but his next words were. "I don't intend to kill him but I have to make sure he will never be able to attempt the destruction of my people again."

"Then what--"

"There is a place where he can never touch a computer again-- a place that has no software because it is the ultimate evolution of software itself. He will be banished there."

They both stared at him. "You're sending him to the Digital Dimension?" Riley gasped.

"That's right-- along with any of the others we find to be unrepentant." He chuckled, "And Shibumi. _He_ actually volunteered to go. Now move your cute rear-end out of the way, Riley. Portal magic isn't a precise art and I don't want to accidentally drop you in with him."

Yamaki stiffened and stood up straight, raising his chin and pushing Riley away from him. Riley glanced between digimon and man and then grabbed Yamaki's arm and pulled herself to him, holding on tightly. "Riley, you can't stop him--" Yamaki began but she interrupted him.

"Don't be stupid, I'm coming with you!"

Yamaki gaped at her in surprise.

"Hah," Yeii Coyomon chuckled, "Loyalty and bravery as well as impressive physical charms-- that's quite a girl you've got there, pal."

Yamaki started to say something else but Yeii Coyomon had become bored with pretentious blustering and flicked the point of his spear at the floor beneath the couple's feet. It dissolved into a haze of black and white pixels and they dropped from sight without a sound.

Yeii Coyomon turned to the window as the dimensional portal evaporated. The lights in HYPNOS headquarters had died down to dim flickers, the last of the computer equipment fragmenting into hot silicon dust.

The door to the apartment banged open and an elecmon scampered in from the hallway and bowed to him. "Did it go as planned, my Sovereign?"

"Even better," Yeii Coyomon smiled down at him. "You did your job very well, thank you. You can return to your tamer now. Remember-- don't tell Jeri anything about this." The elecmon smiled with pride, bowed once more, and ran off.

Yeii Coyomon thought about resuming the disguise of his own Rookie form but then decided against it. It was a fine night for flying. He walked out onto the balcony and stood looking out across the blazing lights of Tokyo for a moment. He lifted his nose and closed his eyes, drinking in the night air, catching the scents of all the life and energy that flowed through the city-- _his _city-- his _realm_. He would visit the Digital Dimension again soon; Yamaki and the others would need some looking after and he couldn't trust Kayamon-- bless her chaotic little heart-- to really understand the wants and needs of humans. Someday he wanted to see the great desert across the Pacific where his first tamer's family still lived and try the fry bread that Danny had so often talked about. It would be fun to visit a place where coyotes were a part of the mythic landscape-- the opportunities for entertaining mischief would be endless-- but _this_ place was his home now-- his responsibility.

A digignome flew down out of the night and settled onto his shoulder, softly trilling a message. Yeii Coyomon smiled and thanked it, stepping up onto the railing of the balcony as the little glowing creature glided away. His beloved Renamon had finished her part of the operation and was waiting for him.

He spread his wings as wide as possible, judging to a fine degree the strength and direction of the wind that swirled around the apartment tower, and waited for the perfect moment to leap.

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

**Author's Notes:**

**Thank you for reading.**

**Thanks, also, to all my reviewers, in particular NKC, who besides being a dependable reviewer who got a lot of the subtleties I strove for, is a damned fine writer, too.**

**If you liked this story, please think about giving it a review-- even pointing out errors is fine-- I'm more than willing to go back and fix stuff. Any private questions or comments-- feel free to message or email me.**

**But the best thanks you can offer is to write and post more of your own work-- I just love a good story.**

**--oOo--oOo--oOo--**

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**--oOo--oOo--oOo--**


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